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Ornament fourth inTke Tomb of Kouloba 

EbectTajTT."Va&c for perfumes, "fou-ad. -n.efc.r iKe Qu.eenJs remains 
Embossed, WorK running roa«<I.Vas.e 



Scythian Relics found in the Tumulus. 



THE 



INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 

OF 

AMERICA. 



BY 

BARNARD SHIPP. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

SHERMAN & CO., PRINTERS. 
1 8 97. 



vA 



1 1\ 



ERRATA. 



age i 
" 170, 

198, 
203, 
206, 
207 : 
228, 
257, 
341 
356, 
356, 
357, 
357, 

368, 
386, 

388, 
390, 
393, 
401, 

402, 
404, 
405, 
417, 
417, 
434, 



443, 



line 18 from bottom: beneficial should be beneficent. 
Note: after Dominecbe should be a period, and then should 

follow, Alvarez Nunez Cabeza de Vacca, etc. 
sixth line from bottom : fruit should be forest, 
seventh line from bottom : Redney should be Kodne}^. 
last line: south westward ly should be southwardly, 
third line: southwestwardly should be southwardly, 
sixth line from bottom: belts should be bells, 
ninth line from bottom : in should be on. 
eleventh line: northwest should be narrowest, 
eleventh line: and ninety-two— should be omitted, 
seventh line from bottom : Ordony should be Ordonez, 
eighth line: of should be at. 

Note, line next to bottom: than to Norway, should be 
than Norway. 

seventh line from bottom: where should be when. 

fourth line from bottom : Mediterranean should be medi- 
terranean. 

ninth line: Cydmus should be Cydnus. 

tenth line: these ports should be their ports. 

second line: put in should be put on. 

Note: Logus should be Lagus. Soter Onesicritus, Soter, 
Onesicritus. 

eighth line from bottom : of Arabii should be of the Arabii. 
sixth line: certain rocky should be certain high rocky, 
third line from bpttom: were seen should be were now. 
seventh line: was should be were. 

eighth line from bottom: Alexandria should be Alexander, 
eighteenth line: Phoenician should be Phocean, and the 

Note, Martin's History of France should be A Thierry, 

Historie des Gaulois. 
eleventh line: Origama should be Orizama. 



PREFACE. 



Impressed with a belief that many persons had an erroneous 
idea regarding the tumuli of America, I undertook to show, by 
giving accounts of similar works scattered over Europe and Asia, 
that such monuments were not peculiar to America. The collec- 
tion of these facts led me to other considerations, and I conceived 
the idea of a comparison of the tumuli and ancient monuments 
of the Old World with those of the New World, and so I collected 
descriptions of some of the most remarkable tumuli and ancient 
monuments of America. As I advanced the prospect enlarged, 
and, considering the material I had collected would serve to illus- 
trate history, I gathered additional facts of a different character 
to use in connection with the preceding, to demonstrate that an 
intercourse existed between the two hemispheres in very remote 
ages, and to show the probable origin of the peoples who inhabited 
North America when it was last discovered by Europeans. 

The title of this book, though expressing the principal subjects 
of which the most of this volume consists, yet neither of Indians 
nor of Antiquities does it give a full account, and it is the same of 
the other subjects, viz. : the remarkable tumuli and monuments of 
remote antiquity ; the most ancient navigation, navies, vessels, voy- 
ages, colonies, and commerce of the Old World. 

The information on the great variety of subjects of which this 
book treats has been derived from divers sources ; some from the 
works of men eminent in science; some from the narratives of 
distinguished and reliable travellers ; some from the histories of 
celebrated authors, both ancient and modern ; and, finally, some 
from the accounts of recent travellers confirming what has been 
related by those who had preceded them. With this notice, and 
a reference to the table of contents, a correct idea can be formed 
of the plan and object of this work. 



iv 



PREFACE. 



When we consider the grandeur and power of the nations of 
antiquity, of the people of Babylonia (of whom there is now 
abundant written evidence that they existed and were civilized 
seven thousand years before the Christian era), and that India 
was, probably, at the height of its prosperity when Egypt and 
Assyria were but in their infancy, we are deeply impressed with 
a consciousness of how little we know of the past. But the events 
recorded in this book lead me to believe that in very remote ages 
the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, and the Carthagin- 
ians had, at different times and intervals, intercourse with the 
nations of the New World ; that when this intercourse ceased it 
was, in the course of time, so far forgotten that the vague recol- 
lection of it became the myth of the lost Atlantis ; and that when 
the Mongols overran Asia and a part of Europe, or, ever later, 
when these Mongol conquerors were expelled from China, and 
probably from Northeastern Asia, Tartar hordes sought refuge in 
North America, exterminated its inhabitants, and took possession 
of this continent. 

Barnard Shipp. 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
August 3, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The word Tumulus — Derivation of the word Tepe — The Ancient Uses of 
Tumuli — Superstition in Regard to Them — Serpent Mounds — Serpent 
Worship — Sacred Fires — The Earliest and the Latest Tumulus— Dif- 
ferent Kinds of Tumuli — Their Multitude, 1 



CHAPTER II. 

The Burial of Patroclus— The Burial of Hector — The Tumuli at Platea — 
The Tumuli at Marathon— Modern Accounts of those at Marathon — 
The Burial-place of the Lydian Kings — The Tumulus of Alyattes, the 
Father of Crcesus — Herodotus's Account of It — Dr. Chandler's Account 
of It— Ancient Customs of the Greeks in Regard to Tumuli, ... 8 



CHAPTER III. 

Chevalier's Visit to the Plains of Troy — The Tumulus of Eesyetes — Alex- 
ander's Visit to the Plains of Troy— The Tumulus of Protesilaus — 
Alexander Erects- " Altars," Tumuli, .at Eleus and at Sigeum — The 
Tumulus of Demaratus — Alexander Erects Twelve "Altars" in India 
— The Scythian Tumuli on the Borysthenes — Herodotus's Account of 
Them — De Hell's Account of Them — Edmund Spencer's Account of 
the Museum at Kertch — The Opening of a Tumulus in the Crimea — 
Tumuli in the Crimea, . . . . . . . . .13 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Miletian and Heraklean Settlements in the Crimea — Description of 
Kertch— Tumuli Several Rows Deep, for Two-thirds of a Mile, Near 
Kertch — Particular Description of Two Great Tumuli Near Kertch, 
and of Their Contents, ' . .17 



CHAPTER V. 

The Plain of Urmia— Tumuli Near the Village of Dgalu — Description of 
a Temple of the Ghebers — Fire-worshippers on the West Coast of the 
Caspian Sea, Near Bakoo, in 1824 — Topes, Tepes, or Tumuli Numerous 
in Afghanistan — The Word "Tepe" Used in Many Parts of Asia for 
Tumulus — The Turkoman Tepes —Turkoman Customs — Mounds on 
the Euphrates — Mound of the Emperor Gordian — The Emperor Ju- 
lian Buried at Tarsus, in Cilicia, ....... 35 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

A Siberian Tumulus and its Contents— The Tumuli of Bouchtarma — 
Tumuli in Chinese Tartary — Tumuli in the Region of the Lepsou 
River — Marco Polo's Account of the Burial of the Grand Khans — The 
Great Plain of Central Asia — Two Remarkable Tombs— The Region 
of the Karatau — An Immense Ancient Earthwork and Tumuli on the 
Lepsou — Grand Mountain Scenery of the Karatau and the Alatau — 
Fort Kopal — Huge Blocks of Stone Erect on the Kora — A Remarkable 
Stone Tumulus — The Mineral Springs and Baths at Arasan — The Pass 
of Karatau — The Kirghis Ranges — Large Tumuli — An Area of One 
Mile by Four Covered with Tumuli, 39 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Tumuli of Europe — Human Sacrifices — The Burial Laws of Odin — 
The Tumuli of Ireland — The Tumulus of New Grange — The Tumulus 
of Thyre Danebod— The Skip's iElunger or Ship's Tumulus — The 
Buried Ship of Gokstad, in Norway — Tumuli of Britain, of Stone- 
henge, of Dorsetshire — The Age of Celtic Tumuli — Tumuli of Canter- 
bury ; of Cracow, Poland — The Tumulus of Kosiusko, ... 48 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Stonehenge — Avebury — The Gaelic Monuments of France — Carnak, , . 56 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Serpent Mound of Oban, Scotland — Prehistoric Remains Near the Ser- 
pent Mound of Ohio — The Kistvean — The Loggan, or Rocking Stone, 
of Fordham, New York — Druidical or Sabian Circles in Central Arabia 
— Monumental Stones of Algeria, of Constantine and Tripoli in Af- 
rica — Menhirs of Setiff — Monumental Stones of Hindustan, of the 



Dekkan, and of Southern India, 69 

CHAPTER X. 

Tumuli of America — Peru : Religion — Deities — Huacas — Academies — As- 
tronomy — Division of Time — Festivals —Sacrifices — Navigation of the 
Peruvians, of the Yucatans, of the Floridians, . . . 75 

CHAPTER XI. 

Peru : Guaquas — Copper Axes— Temples— Fortresses— Pucaras— Burials — 

Tombs — Mummies, .......... 89 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mexico : Aztec Migration— Teocallis — Description of the Great Temple of 
Mexico, by Bernal Diaz — Mexican Cannibals — The Teocalli of Cozu- 
mel and Sempoalla— The Victims of Sacrifice — The Teocallis of Cho- 
lula — Their Destruction — The History of Cholula — Its Great Temple — 
Teocallis as Forts— The Capture of the Great Temple of Mexico — The 
Capture of the Teocallis of Sempoalla, 99 



CONTENTS. 



VI 1 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

• PAGE 

Mexico : The Founding of the Great Temple — Description of It by ('la v i- 
gero — Description of the Temples of Teotihuacan by Brantz Mayer — 
Humboldt's Account of Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Mitla and Papantla 
— The Mexican Hierarchy, Monasteries, Nunneries, Sacrifices, Offer- 
ings, Penances and Funerals — Fortifications, . . . . .121 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Toltecas — Their Migration, Character, Knowledge of Astronomy — 

Their National Extinction — Their Dispersion, 144 

CHAPTER XV. 

Mexican Chronology — The Abbe Don Lorenzo Herva's Letter to the Abbe 

Don Francisco Severio Clavigero, on the Mexican Calendar, . .148 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Mexican Festivals — The Worship of Fire — Father Garces and Font's Visit 
to the Gila and the Moqui Country in 1773— The Rio Grande Basin — 
The Pueblos of the Rio Grande, Rio Verde and Rio Gila — Casa Blanca 
or Montezuma and Casa Grande of the Gila — The Casas Grandes of 
the Rio Casas Grandes — New Mexico, when First Discovered — The 
Journey of Espejo Through New Mexico in 1582 — Its Cities and Peo- 
ples in 1782, 158 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Abbe Rrasseur de Bourbourg's Observations on the Civilized Nations 

of Mexico and Central Amei'ica, . . . . . . . .173 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The American Indian, by Ulloa, Croghan, Carver and Charlevoix — The 
Opinions of Fathers Gregorio Garcia, Joseph de Acosta, John de Laet, 
Emanuel de Moraez, George de Huron — Charlevoix's Method to Dis- 
cover the Earliest and the Latest Emigrants, 1S4 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Tumuli — L T cita — Cafaciqui — Cartersville Mounds and Idols — Casquin — 
Capaha — Breckenridge's Description of Capaha — The Tensas Mounds 
— Tonti and the Tensas Indians — The Destruction of their Temple, . 194 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Home of the Natchez — Tonti' s and La Salle's Visit to the Tensas ami 
the Natchez, in 1682 — Iberville's Visit to the Natchez in April, 1700 — 
Penicaut's Account of the Natchez in 1700 — Du Pratz's Account of the 
Funeral of the Great Female Sun — The Religion of the Natchez — 
Their Government — Their Feasts — Their Temples, and the Funeral 
of the Stung Serpent, .......... 206 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE XXI. page 
The Sultzertown Mounds— The Macon Mounds— The Flat Heads, . . 224 

CHAPTEE XXII. 

Views of a Member of the First Congress — The Works on Little Eiver, in 
the State of Georgia — Bartram's Account of Them — Cullsate, Sticoe and 
Keowee — Ancient Tombs and Fortifications on the Eiver Huron, or 
Bald Eagle — Ancient Works near Newark, Ohio — Ancient Fortifica- 
tions at Marietta, Ohio — The Ancient Works at Grave Creek, Virginia 



—Schoolcraft's Visit to Them, 231 

CHAPTEE XXIII. 

Breckenridge's Description of the American Bottom, and the Mounds of 
Cahokia and Saint Louis — The Mummies of Tennessee — The Mounds 
near St. Charles, Missouri — The Trinity Mounds of Louisiana, . .251 

CHAPTEE XXIV. 

Bartram's Account of the Cherokees, Muscogulges and Choc taws, . . 260 

CHAPTEE XXV. 

Indian Burials, Idols, Mounds, Terraces and Avenues, .... 267 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

Effigy Mounds — The Mounds of Wisconsin— The Elephant Mound — Ele- 
phants' Eemains at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, 1735, . . . 275 

CHAPTEE XXVII. 

Captain James G. Swan's Account of the Chanooks and Chahalis of " the 
Northwest Coast" of the United States — The Antiquity of the Ameri- 
can Continent — How Long Inhabited by Man — Origin of the Human 
Eace — The Jargon Language — Peculiarities of Indian Pronunciation, 279 

CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

The Caraibs the Most Expert in Maritime Affairs of all the Savage Inhab- 
itants of America — Their Vessels — Their Navigation — The Caracoli — 



The Caraibs' Skill in Manufactures — Toulola or Arrow-root Their Cure 
for Wounds Made by Poisoned Arrows — The Destruction of the 
Caraibs, 286 

CHAPTEE XXIX. 

The Mummies of Tennessee and of Kentucky — Where Found — How 

Dressed and How Buried, ........ 297 



CONTENTS. 



ix 



CHAPTER XXX. 

PAGE 

Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell on the Varieties of the Human Race — The Settle- 
ment of America — The High Rock Spring of Saratoga, New York, an 
Evidence of the Antiquity of Man — Lewis H. Morgan on Indian Mi- 
gration, 30 1 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Captain John Dundas Cochran's Account of Xiskney Kolymsk — Amuse- 
ments — Weather — Occupations — Animals — Baron Wrangel's Trip to 
the Fair on the Aniuy — The Yukagiri — The Fortress — The Chukche 
— The Fair — Chess — Articles of Trade — Chukche Chiefs — Reindeer — 
The Chukche Peninsula— Chukche, 312 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

The Voyage of the Vega — The Northern Coast of A*sia — Chukches — The 
Northernmost Capes of Asia — The Onkilon — The "Winter Quarters of 
the Vega — Chukche Settlements — Chukche Trade and Travel — Mam- 
moth Remains, . . • - .• • • ■' • • • • 322 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The Division of the Chukches— Their Population — Their Burials, Tents, 

Boats, etc., . . , . . . . . . . 335 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

St. Lawrence Bay — Port Clarence — Eskimos — Their Implements, Burials, 
etc. — Xephite — Ocean Currents — The Behring Strait Channel — 
Konyan Bay — Geological Features — Lawrence Island Eskimo — 
The Discovery of Kamschatka — Peter the Great — Expeditions to 
Kamschatka — The First Voyage of Behring, 341 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Voyage of Marco Polo in 1291, a.d. — Jewish and Egyptian Types 
Among Indians in America — The Voyages of the Norsemen, S60-1000 
a.d. — Their Route to America — Their Relics on Baffin's Bay — The 
Voyage of Leif Eirekson — The Viking's Vessel of Gokstad, Norway 
— The Voyage of Captain Magnus Andersen to America on the " Vik- 
ing," 1893 a.d., 353 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Ancient Navigation, Navies, Vessels, Crews and Voyages — The Shipwreck 
of St. Paul — Egyptian, Indian and Carthaginian Ships — Their Con- 
struction — The Extent of Carthaginian Navigation, .... 365 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
Ancient Settlements — Idumeans — Omerites — Chuseens — Eastern and West- 
ern Sabians — Arabia Felix — Ophir — Diodorus's Account of the Sa- 
bians — Tartessa, or Tarsis of Cilicia, and of Tberia, .... 382 



X 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEK XXXVIII. 

PAGE 

Ancient Voyages — Canaanites or Sidonians— Voyages from Elath and 
Ezion-Geber to Tarsis — Josephus on Solomon and Hiram — Phoenician 
Colonies — Diodorus's Description of the Country of Elath and Ezion- 
Geber, and the Sinus JElanitticus— The Phoenicians and Carthaginians 
— Necho — Necho's Canal —Phoenicians Sail from the Red Sea Around 
Africa to Egypt — Commerce Between Egypt and India — The Voyage 
of Scylax from India to Egypt, ........ 389 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Alexander Prepares to Leave India — The Voyage of Xearchus from the 
Indus to the Euphrates — The Ichthyophagi — Whales — The Coast of 
Suza — Alexander Sails Up the Tigris — His Great Naval Preparations 
at Babylon — His Grand Scheme of Conquest, Commerce, Colonies, 
Expeditions — Ptolemy Philadelphus— The Indian Voyage and Trade, 401 



CHAPTER XL. 

Alexander's Plans — The Voyage of Hanno — Bougainville's Comments on 
the Voyage of Hanno — Carthaginian Colonies in Africa — Carthaginian 
Traffic in Africa — The Gold Mines in the Regions of the Senegal and 
Rio-d'-Ouro — The Voyages and Vessels of Columbus— The Xina— The 
Storm — The Hurricane — The Duration of the Voyages of Columbus 
Across the Atlantic Ocean — Humboldt's Account of the Route from 
the Canaries to Cumana — The Voyage of Bligh in a Launch, . .417 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Migrations, and Transmission of Names — The Phoceans — Massalia— The 
Samians — Tartessus — The Caravan Route from Yarkand to Kara- 
Korum — The Country of the Mongols and Toltecans— The Kalkas 
Tartars — Kara-Korum — Indian Offshoots from Mexico — The Aztec 
Route — Jefferson's "Views in Regard to Indians" — Tepe — Mateo 
Tepe — Volney's Account of Indians — Volney and Mishikiuakwa, or 
Little Turtle — Dr. Barton on Indian Languages — Jefferson on Lan- 
guages — President D. S. Jordan on the Urgent Xeed of a National 
University, 432 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



From copies Drawn by Mr. WILLIAM TRABUE, of Louisville, Kentucky. 



NO. 


PAGE 




1 


18 


Peninsula of Kertch or Panticapreum. 


2 


18 


Plan of Kertch. 


3 


25 


Interior of the Great Tumulus at Kertch. 


4.. 


..Frontispiece. 


..Scythian Kelics found in the Tumulus. 




44 


1 Great Tumulus near Kopal. 


. 6 


44.... 


Kopal and Tumuli. 




56.... 


..Stonehenge. 


8 


92 


, .Adoratorie of Cavambe. 


9. 


92.... 


,The Callo Palace of the Incas. 


10 


94.... 


..The Palace and Citadel of the Tncas. 


11 


103!!.. 


. . The Great Temple of Mexico. 


12 


127.... 


, The Ruins of Teotihuacan. 


13 


162.... 


..The Casa Grande of the Gila. 


14 


166.... 


..The Pueblo of Hun go Pavie. 


15 


195.... 


..The Tumuli of Cofacique. 


16 


197.... 


..The Tumuli near Cartersville, Georgia. 


17 


227.... 


..The Tumuli near Macon, Georgia. 


18 


236.... 


..The Earthworks on the River Huron, Michigan. 


19 


238.... 


..The Earthworks at Newark, Ohio. 


20 


240.... 


..The Earthworks at Marietta, Ohio. 


21 


341.... 


..Beh ring Strait. 


22 


362.... 


. . The Viking, Model of the Vessel Buried at Goksl 


23 


426.... 


..The Nina, of the Squadron of Columbus on his '. 



America. 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 
OF AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Tumuli — Derivation of the word Tepe — The Ancient Uses of Tumuli — 
Superstitious Ideas in Regard to Them — Serpent Mounds — Serpent Wor- 
ship — Sacred Fires — The Earliest and the Latest Tumuli — Different Kinds 
of Tumuli — Their Age and Multitude. 

Tumuli, a name generally given to those hillocks or mounds of 
earth which were anciently erected over the bodies of deceased 
heroes or persons of distinguished character, are considered by a 
learned antiquarian as the most ancient sepulchral monuments. 
This mode of interment may be traced to remotest antiquity, and 
the religion of those times had much to do with the erection of 
these monuments, as the earliest records of these times plainly in- 
dicate. And as religious ideas are the most tenacious and most 
durable that possess the human mind, so have they been trans- 
mitted from generation to generation through many thousands of 
years ; and it is by reference to these religious rites that some 
knowledge can be acquired of their construction, and the motives 
and purposes of their erection, and that the relations of different 
and distant nations in past ages may be traced through many 
centuries. 

Bryant, in his "Analysis of Ancient Mythology," treats of re- 
ligious rites and customs in their relation to the tumuli of the Old 
World. He says : 

" Lower Egypt being flat, and annually overflowed, the natives 
were forced to raise the soil on which they built their principal 
edifices, in order to secure them from the inundation ; and many 
of their sacred towers were erected upon conical mounds of earth. 
But there were often hills of the same form constructed for relig- 
ious purposes, upon which there was no building. These were 
very common in Egypt. Hence we read of Taphanes, Taph-Osiris, 
Taph-Osiris-Parva, and contra Taphias, in Antoninus, all of this 
country. In other parts Taphiousa, Tape, Taphusa Tapori, 
Taphus, Taphorus, Taphitis. [Though here the word Tape — Tepe 

1 



2 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. I. 



— is derived from taphos, yet it is probable that Tepe is an aborigi- 
nal word.] All these names relate to high altars, upon which they 
used oftentimes to offer human sacrifices." 

Typhen, compounded of Tuph-On, which signifies the hill or 
altar of the Sun, was one of these. Tophet was a mount of this 
form. " They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in 
the valley of the son of Hinnon, to burn their sons and their 
daughters in the fire." " They have built also the high places of 
Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal."* 
These cruel operations were generally performed upon mounts of 
this sort, which from their conical figure were named Tuph and 
Tupha. It seems to have been a term current in many countries. 

"The Amonians, when they settled in Greece, raised many of 
these Tupha or Tapha in different places. As it was usual in an- 
cient times to bury persons of distinction under heaps of earth 
formed in this fashion, these Tapha came to signify tpmbs ; and 
almost all the sacred mounds, raised for religious purposes, were 
looked upon as monuments of deceased heroes. Hence Taph- 
Osiris was rendered Taphos, Totpoq, or the burying-place of the 
God Osiris ; and, as there were many such places in Egypt and 
Arabia sacred to Osiris and Dionusus, they were all by the Greeks 
esteemed places of sepulture. The tumulus of the Latines was 
mistaken in the same manner. It was originally a sacred hillock, 
and was often raised before temples as an altar. In process of time 
the word tumulus was in a great measure looked upon as a tomb ; 
and tumulo signified to bury. The Greeks speak of numberless 
sepulchral monuments, which they have thus misinterpreted." 

" These supposed places of sepulture were so numerous that 
Clemens Alexandrinus tells us they were not to be counted. But 
after all, these Taphoi were not tombs but conical mounds of earth, 
on which, in the first ages, offerings were made by fire." 

These learned remarks of Bryant are interesting and instructive. 
They show the great age and the great multitude of ancient ar- 
tificial mounds. Some were erected for religious purposes, and 
others as tombs and monuments of heroes and illustrious men. 
At the tombs of these heroes religious ceremonies were sometimes 
performed, and sometimes the hero was even deified ; so it may be 
said some of these mounds partook of both a religious and a 
sepulchral character. Bryant himself says " that it was usual in 
ancient times to bury persons of distinction under heaps of earth 
in this fashion," that is, under a 11 conical mound of earth." Cheva- 

* Jeremiah, c. 7, v. 31, and c. 19, v. 5. 



CHAP. I.] 



OF AMERICA. 



3 



Her, in his " Description of the Plains of Troy," says : " Mr. Bryanl 
has endeavored to prove that the Greeks were mistaken in sup- 
posing what were sacred mounds to be the tombs of heroes. But 
the concurrent testimony of Homer and all antiquity is sufficient 
to convince us that they had no other way of preserving their 
ashes than by depositing them under these hillocks. Barrows of 
a similar shape and of the same sort are to be found in all ceme- 
teries, and wherever any trouble has been taken to ransack them, 
the remains of human bones have always been found within them. 
Some few of them might be particularly consecrated to the ceremo- 
nies of religion, but it cannot be denied that the greatest number 
was destined to the purpose of containing the ashes of heroes and 
other great men." 

Bryant says, " When towers were situated upon eminences fash- 
ioned very round they were, by the Amonians, called Tith, which 
answers to Tt T6rj and Tt T0oq of the Greeks. They were so de- 
nominated from their resemblance to a woman's breast and were 
particularly sacred to the deities of light. Mounds of this nature 
are often termed from their resemblance fxaffroetd/x- Xo<poq. 

" These mounds, tophoi mastoides, were not only in Greece, but 
in Egypt, Syria, and most parts of the world. They were gen- 
erally formed by art ; being composed of earth raised very high, 
which was sloped gradually and with great exactness : and the 
top of all was crowned with a fair tower. The situation of these 
buildings caused them to be looked upon as places of great safety, 
and the reverence in which they were held added to their security. 
On these accounts they were the repositories of much wealth and 
treasure. There were often two of these mounds of equal height 
in the same enclosure. The Mezraim called these hills Typhon. 
In these temples the sun was principally adored, and the rites of 
fire celebrated. The ground set apart for such use was generally 
oval, and towards one extremity of the long diameter, as it were in 
the focus, were these mounds and towers erected. They were 
termed Tarchon, which by corruption was in later times rendered 
Trachon. There were two hills of this denomination near Damas- 
cus. These were hills with towers. Solomon takes notice of a hill 
of this sort upon Lebanon looking towards Damascus.* The term 
Trachon seems to have been still further sophisticated by the 
Greeks, and expressed Dracon, from whence in a great measure 
arose the notion of treasures being guarded by Dragons. Such are 
the poetical representations ; but the history at bottom relates to 



* Canticles, c. 7, v. 4. 



4 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. I 



sacred towers, dedicated to the symbolical worship of the serpent, 
where there was a perpetual watch, and a light ever burning. The 
Titanian temples were stately edifices erected, in Chaldea, as well 
as in Lower Egypt, upon mounds of earth. 

"The ancients sometimes wilfully misrepresented things, in 
order to create wonder. Iphicrates relates that in Mauritania there 
were dragons of such extent that grass grew upon their backs. It 
is said of Taxiles, a mighty prince of India, and a rival of Porus, 
that upon the arrival of Alexander the Great, he showed him every- 
thing that was in his country curious, and which could win the 
attention of a foreigner. Among other things, he carried him to 
see a dragon, which was sacred to Dionusus, and itself esteemed a 
god. It was of a stupendous size, being in extent equal to five 
acres; and resided in a low deep place, walled to a great height. 
The Indians offered sacrifices to it, and it was daily fed by them 
from their flocks and herds, which it devoured at an amazing 
rate : that it was treated rather as a tyrant than a benevolent deity. 
Two dragons of a like nature are said to have resided in the 
mountains of Abisares, or Abiosares, in India ; the one was eighty 
cubits in length, the other one hundred and forty.* Similar to 
the above is the account given by Posidonius of a serpent which 
he saw in the plains of Macra, a region in Syria ; and he says it 
was about an acre in length, and of a thickness so remarkable 
that two persons on horseback, when they rode on the opposite 
sides, could not see one another. Each scale was as big as a 
shield, and a man might ride into its mouth. What can this 
description allude to but the ruins of an ancient Ophite temple, 
which is represented in this enigmatical manner to raise admira- 
tion. The plains of Macra were not far from Mount Lebanon 
and Hermon, where the Hevites resided, and where serpent wor- 
ship particularly prevailed. The Indian dragon seems to have 
been of the same nature. It was probably a temple and its 
environs, where a society of priests resided, and worshipped the 
Deity under the semblance of a serpent. The python of Par- 
nassus is well known, which Apollo is supposed to have slain. 
After all, this dragon was a serpent temple ; a tumbos formed of 
earth." 

Plutarch takes notice that in the temple of Anion there was a 
light continually burning. The like was observable in the 
temples of the Egyptians. Pausanias mentions the lamp of 
Minerva Polias, at Athens, which never went out ; the same custom 



* "Strabo," 1., 15. 



CHAP. I.] 



OF AMERICA. 



5 



was kept up in most of the Prutaneia * The Chaldeans and Per- 
sians had sacred hearths on which they preserved perpetual fire. 
In the temple of Apollo Carneus, at Cyrene, the fire upon the 
altar was never suffered to be extinguished. A like account is 
given by Said Ebn Batrick of the sacred fire which was preserved 
in the great temple at Aderbain in Armenia. A nation in India 
called Caimachitae had large Puratheia, and maintained a per- 
petual fire. According to the Levitical law a constant fire was to 
be kept up upon the altar of God.f The Roman Catholics keep 
lights continually burning before their altars. 

" Towers of this sort were often consecrated to the Ophite deity 
called Opis and Oupis. The temple was called Kir-Upis, which 
the Greeks abridged to Grupes ; and finding many of the Amonian 
temples in the north with the device of a winged serpent upon the 
frontal, they gave this name to the hieroglyphic. Hence, prob- 
ably, arose the notion of Gryphons — Grupes, which like the dragons 
were supposed to be guardians of treasures, and to never sleep. 
The real conservators of the wealth were the priests. They kept 
up a perpetual fire, and an unextinguished light in the night. 
From Ker Upis, the place of his residence, a priest was named 
Grupes. The poets have represented grupes as animals of the 
serpentine kind, and supposed them to have been in countries of 
the Arimasphians, Alazonians, Hyperboreans, Scythic nations of 
the same family, and other northern regions which the Amonians 
possessed." 

This name, Amonian, Bryant applies to the descendants of Ham. 
He says : " They were all of the line of Ham, who was held by 
his posterity in the highest veneration. They called him Anion, 
and have in process of time raised him to a divinity ; they worship 
him as the sun, and from his worship they were styled Amonians. 
Under this denomination are included all of this family ; whether 
they were Egyptians or Syrians, of Phenicia, or of Canaan. 
There once existed a wonderful resemblance in the rites, cus- 
toms and terms of worship among nations widely separated. 
This similitude of terms, and the religious system which was so 
widely propagated, were owing to one great family who spread 
themselves almost universally. Their colonies went abroad under 
the sanction of their priests, and carried with them both the rites 
and the records of their country. "J 

* Prutaneia, Temple of Yesta, where the sacred fire was kept. Puratheia, 
Persian fire temple. t Leviticus, c. 6, v. 13. 

X Bryant's "Analysis of Ancient Mythology." 



6 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. I. 



This opinion of Bryant that one family and its colonies and 
descendants spread their religious ideas and rites over the whole 
world may appear plausible to many, but the nature of man has 
been the same in all ages, and in all climes. The same sun that 
shone for the Persians shone also for the Peruvians, and they both 
worshipped it. There is no more perfect symbol of the sun than 
fire, and they both adopted it. 

Earthern pottery has been made by nearly all the nations of the 
world, and in all ages, but it is not necessary to refer all these to 
one and the same origin. The same necessity and the same ma- 
terial were the origin of the earthern utensils of the Old World and 
of the New. 

Because a god of war was worshipped in Mexico, it is not neces- 
sary to trace its origin to Mars, in order to account for the idolatry 
of the Mexicans. 

But notwithstanding all this, religious ideas, rites, and cere- 
monies have been transmitted from nation to nation through a 
long succession of ages. While we find in the Old World the his- 
torical record of these facts, the New World presents the material 
evidence of a similar transmission. 

Tumuli, or ancient artificial mounds, are found almost every- 
where where the human race has inhabited. They are found in 
America in various places, from the Great Lakes to Chili. In the 
Old World they are found in localities from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific Ocean, and from Siberia to India. The Assyrians, the 
Persians, the Babylonians and the Greeks made them. The Celts 
and the Saxons, the Scythians, Mongolians and Hungarians, all 
these peoples made mounds over their dead. The earliest, or at 
least one of the earliest of recorded mounds was that erected by 
Semiramis over the remains of Ninus, 3810 years ago. Semiramis 
buried Ninus within the precincts of the palace, and erected over 
him a hugh mound. 

Diodorus Siculus says of Ninus : " He was interred at Ninive 
in a sepulchre that was made for him of a marvellous bigness, 
being in height, according to Etesias, nine hundred and thirty-seven 
and a half fathoms, and about half a league about ; which hugh 
structure [in regard to the city] seated in a plain country by the 
Euphrates, is seen afar off, as it were a castle ; and it is said that 
it is yet in being, although the Medes did long since destroy the 
city of Ninive, when they ruled over the Assyrians." 

Of Semyramis Diodorus says : " Semyramis went into Persia 
and other regions of Asia under her rule and dominion, and every- 
where caused mountains and rocks to be cut in sunder to make 



CHAP. I.] 



OF AMERICA. 



7 



the ways easy for travellers, and in the plain and fiat countries 
she cast up great mounds of earth whereon she built either 
sepulchres for her commanders, or some cities and towns. It 
was her manner also to raise up high banks in her camp, where 
she pitched her tent, that from thence she might take a view of her 
army. Of all these are many marks and ruins in Asia remaining 
to this day, which are still said to be the work of this queen." 

The most recent monument of this kind, raised in memory of 
distinguished men, is that erected by the people of Poland in 
memory of Kosiusco, the Polish patriot and hero, the friend of 
Washington. This mound was made in the year 1819, by the volun- 
tary labor of the Polish people. It has a base 300 feet in diameter, 
and an elevation of 175 feet. Within this long period of time, from 
Ninus to Kosiusco, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians 
and the Persians have passed away ; the empires of the Macedo- 
nians, the Romans, the Mongolians and the Arabs have risen and 
perished ; while multitudes of kingdoms, nations and tribes have 
passed into oblivion, so to no one nation can the erection of these 
mounds be attributed as the sole authors of them, or referred as 
the peculiarity of that particular nation. There was no nation of 
mound-builders in the Old World. 

These monuments of the Old World, the remains of extinct peo- 
ples, are known to have been increasing in number for nearly four 
thousand years. When, therefore, we consider the durability of 
such monuments, and the multitude of nations that erected them 
in this long succession of ages, it is not surprising that they should 
be found in almost every country of Europe and Asia. They are 
found in Ireland, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, France, 
Poland, Tartary, Siberia, China, India, Asia Minor and Greece, and 
in the countries along the northern and southern shores of the 
Mediterranean. 

Some of these mounds are the tombs of heroes, kings and chiefs, 
and some were erected for religious purposes. Some have been 
erected by the command of kings ; some by the voluntary act of a 
nation. In some countries they are known to the people by the 
name of him who is interred beneath them. The history of sunn 
of remote antiquity is known, while the origin of others is lost in 
the remoteness of time. They are known by the names tumuli, 
barrow, mohill, tepe, and, when made of stones, cairns. In form 
they are conical, oblong, bowl-shaped, truncated cones, and quad- 
rilateral. The oldest are long-shaped and in the form of a gigantic 
grave, often depressed in the centre and elevated towards one end. 
The bowl-shaped tumuli seem to have succeeded this early form. 



8 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. II. 



The sepulchral mounds of a later date are broad and low, sur- 
rounded sometimes with an earthen vallum, and sometimes, par- 
ticularly in Scotland and Scandinavia, by a circle of standing 
stones.* There is also a peculiar monument in Scotland which 
has the form of a great serpent, and there are similar ones in India. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Burial of Patroclus— The Burial of Hector— The Tumuli of Platea— The 
Tumuli of Marathon — Modern Accounts of those of Marathon — The Burial 
Place of Lydian Kings — The Tumulus of Alyattes, the Father of Croesus — 
Herodotus' s Account of it — Dr. Chandler's Account of it — Ancient Custom 
of the Greeks in Regard to Tumuli. 

Homer, who lived in the tenth or the ninth century, before the 
Christian era, describes the burial of Patroclus and Hector, who 
perished twelve centuries (1270) before the Christian era. 

In describing the burial of Patroclus he says : " Men were sent 
to the foot of Mount Ida, with axes keen, to hew the lofty oaks. 
The wood they clove, and bound it to the mules ; these took their 
way, hurrying to the plain. The axemen too were laden all with 
logs, which on the beach they laid in order, where a lofty mound 
in memory of Patroclus and himself Achilles had designed. When 
all the store of wood was duly laid the Myrmidons put on their 
armor and harnessed each his horses to his car, and on the cars 
warriors and charioteers their places took. First came the horse, 
and then a cloud of foot unnumbered. In the midst Patroclus 
came, borne by his comrades. All the corpse with hair they cov- 
ered o'er, which from their heads they shore. Behind, Achilles 
held his head, and mourned the noble friend whom to the tomb 
he bore. Then on the spot by Peleus's son assigned they laid 
him down, and piled the wood on high." 

The crowd was then dispersed, only the chiefs remaining. " The 
appointed band remained and piled the wood. A hundred feet 
each way they built the pyre, and on the summit, sorrowing, laid 
the dead. Then sheep and oxen they dressed around the funeral 
pyre. Of all the beasts Achilles took the fat and covered o'er the 
corpse from head to foot, and heaped the slaughtered carcasses 
around. Then jars of honey placed, and fragrant oils, resting upon 
the couch. Next four powerful horses were thrown upon the pyre. 

* In Asia the oldest have a circle of stones. 



* 



CHAP. II.] 



OF AMERICA. 



9 



Then of nine dogs, that at their master's board had fed, he slaugh- 
tered two upon his pyre. Last, with the sword, by evil counsel 
swayed, twelve noble youths he slew, the sons of Troy. The fires 
devouring might be then applied. All night the pyre burned, and 
all night Achilles from a golden bowl, the wine out-pouring, moist- 
ened all the earth." 

In the morning Achilles gives the following order : " Ye chiefs 
of Greece. Far as the flames extend quench we first, with ruddy 
wine, the embers of the pyre. And of Patroclus next : With 
care distinguishing, collect the bones. Nor are they hard to know, 
for in the midst he lay, while round the edges of the pyre horses 
and men co-mixed, the rest were burnt. Let these, between a 
double layer of fat enclosed, and in a golden urn, remain till I 
myself shall in the tomb be laid. And o'er them build a mound, 
not over-large, but of proportions meet. In days to come, ye Greeks, 
who after me shall here remain, complete the work, and build it 
broad and high. " 

Having collected the bones of Patroclus, and in a golden urn 
encased, " then in the tent they laid them, overspread with veil of 
linen fair. Then meteing out the allotted space, the deep founda- 
tions laid around the pyre and o'er them heaped the earth." 

Then followed games with prizes. " The games were ended and 
the multitude amid the ships their several ways dispersed." 

The burial of Hector is thus described by Homer : u First on 
the burning mass, as far as spread the rage of fire, they poured the 
ruddy wine, and quenched the flames. His brethren then and 
friends collected from the pyre the whitened bones. These in a 
golden casket they enclosed, and o'er it spread soft shawls of pur- 
ple dye. Then in a grave they laid it, and in haste with stone in 
ponderous masses covered o'er, and raised a mound. The mound 
erected, back they turned, and all assembled, duly shared the 
solemn feast in Priam's palace. Such were the rites to glorious 
Hector paid."* 

Herodotus says ; "After the battle of Platea the Greeks pro- 
ceeded to inter their dead, each nation by themselves. The Lace- 
demonians sank three trenches — in the one they deposited the 
bodies of their priests, in the second were interred the other Spar- 
tans, and in the third the Helots. The Tegeatse were buried by 
themselves, but with no distinction; the Athenians in like man- 
ner, and also the Magarians and Philiasians. Mounds of earth 
were raised over the bodies of all these peoples." 



* Homer's Iliad, by Edward, Earl of Derby. 



10 



THE INDIAN AXD ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. II. 



Pausanias says: "Marathon is at equal distance from Athens 
and Caristhea, a town of Eubcea. It was at Marathon that the 
Persians landed, and where, after a great battle, they were defeated. 
They also lost many vessels on leaving it. There is seen the sep- 
ulchre of the brave Athenians who perished in the battle ; upon 
their tomb they have erected columns where are engraven the 
names of the tribes and the exploits of the illustrious dead. The 
Plateans, a people of Beotia, have also there their monument, and 
the slaves theirs ; for on this occasion the slaves were enlisted for the 
first time. Miltiades, the son of Cimon, has his sepulchre apart. 
This great man having, after the battle of Marathon, failed at the 
siege of Paros, was exiled by the people of Athens, and died a 
short time afterwards." From this account, it appears, there were 
three mounds : yet Stephens, the celebrated American traveller, 
who visited the plains of Marathon in 1835, mentions but a single 
mound. He merely says : " I hurried to the battle-field. Towards 
the centre was a large mound of earth erected over the Athenians 
who fell in the battle." 

Aubrey DeVere, who published, in 1850, " Picturesque Sketches 
in Greece and Turkey," says in that book, when mentioning his visit 
to Marathon : " The field is about six miles long and two broad, and 
is as flat as the sea. On two sides it is hemmed in by the moun- 
tains of Attica, and on one by the low ranges of Eubcea. Within 
about half a mile of the shore stands the tumulus raised by Aris- 
tides over the Athenians who fell in the action."' DeVere mentions 
but a single mound. 

Henry M. Baird, in his " Modern Greece," published in 1856, says : 
" We reached the mound raised over the slain of the battle of 

Marathon The hillock or funeral mound under which the 

one hundred and ninety-two Athenians, who perished in battle, 
are buried, is perhaps thirty feet high. If its shape was ever an- 
gular, time has worn it down to a round form, except where the 
sacrilegious travellers of this country, in searching for brass and 
flint arrow-heads, have scraped away some earth from its sides. 
Standing upon the top of this monument of ancient glory I could 
easily distinguish the positions most probably occupied by the 

belligerent parties twenty-three centuries ago Having now 

seen all that is most interesting at Marathon we turned our faces 
westward. Instead of retracing our steps to Vrana, we directed 

them to the present village of Marathon We reached it after 

passing on our left the marble platform supposed to have been 
that of a monument erected in honor of Miltiades." 

Herodotus, speaking of Lydia, says : " If we except the gold- 



CHAP. II.] 



OF AMERICA. 



11 



dust which descends from Mount Tmolus,* Lydia can exhibit 
no curiosity which may vie with those of other countries. Jl 
boasts, however, of one monument of art, second to none hut those 
of the Egyptians and Babylonians. It is the sepulchre of Alyattes, 
father of Croesus. The ground-work is composed of immense 
stones ; the rest of the structure is a huge mound of earth. The 
circumference of the tomb is six furlongs and two plethra, the 
breadth thirteen plethra. It is terminated by a large piece of 
water, which is called the Gygean lake. The edifice was raised 
by men of mean and mercenary occupations, assisted by young 
women, who prostituted themselves for hire. On the summit of 
this mound there remained within my remembrance five termini, 
upon which were inscriptions to ascertain the performance of each, 
and to intimate that the women accomplished the greater part of 
the work." 

Dr. R. Chandler, D.D., in his " Travels in Asia Minor," in the 
year 1764, speaking of his visit to the burying-place of the Lydian 
kings, says ; " Before Sardes, on the opposite side of the plain, are 
many barrows on an eminence, some of which are seen afar off. 
We were told that behind them was a lake, and agreed to visit it. 
We left Sardes in the afternoon, and repassed the Pactolus farther 
on. In an hour we came to the banks of the Hermus. We forded 
with water up to our girths^ and then rode among huts of the Tur- 
comans, their large and fierce dogs barking vehemently, and wor- 
rying us. The plains now appeared as bounded by mountains. 
The view westward was terminated by a single, distinct, lofty 
range, the east end of Mount Sipylus. 

" We approached nearer to the high green ridge on which the 
barrows are, and going beyond its eastern extremity, pitched our 
tent, after three hours, by a village called Bazocleu. 

" We were on horseback again at seven in the morning, and going 
northwestward for half an hour, came to the lake behind the ridge 
extending westward, and was anciently called Gygea. It is very 
large, and abounds in fish, its color and taste like common pond- 
water, with beds of sedge growing in it. We saw a few swans 
with cygnets, and many aquatic birds. The air swarmed with 
gnats. The Lydians asserted it was never dry. The name had 
been changed from Gygea to Coloe. By it was a temple of Diana, 
called Colcene, of great sanctity. The privilege of an asylum was 
conferred on it by Alexander. If the lake be fictitious, the ridge 
may be regarded as an immense mound raised with the soil. 

* It probably was the gold-dust brought down from Mount Tmolus by the 
river Pactolus that made Croesus so rich. 



12 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. II. 



" By Gygea, which was within five miles of Sardes, is the burying- 
place of the Lydian kings.* The barrows are of various sizes. 
Four or five, distinguished for their superior magnitude, are visible 
as hills at a great distance. The lake, it is likely, furnished the 
soil. All of them are covered with green turf, and as man)' as I 
observed in passing among them retain their conical form with- 
out any sinking of the top. One of the barrows on the eminence, 
near the middle, and toward Sardes, is rernarkabty conspicuous. 
This has been described by Herodotus as inferior only to the 
works of the Egyptians and Babylonians. It was the monument 
of Alyattes, the father of Croesus ; a vast mound of earth heaped 
on a basement of large stones by three classes of the people ; one 
of which was composed of girls, who were prostitutes. Alyattes 
died after a long reign, in the year 562 before the Christian era. 
About a century intervened, but the historian relates that to his 
time five stones (opoe, termini or stelae) on which letters were en- 
graven had remained on the top, recording what each class had 
performed ; and from the monument it had appeared that the 
greater portion was done by the girls. Strabo also has mentioned 
it as a huge mound raised on a lofty basement by the multitude of 
the city. The circumference is six stadia or three-quarters of a 
mile, the height two plethra or two hundred feet, and the width 
thirteen plethra. 

"It was customary among the Greeks to place on barrows either 
the image of some animal or stelae, commonly round pillows with 
inscriptions. The famous barrow of the Athenians in the plain of 
Marathon, described by Pausanias, is an instance of the latter 
usage. 

" The barrow of Alyattes is much taller and handsomer than any 
I have seen in England or elsewhere. The mould, which has been 
washed down, conceals the stonework, which, it seems, was an- 
ciently visible, t The apparent altitude is diminished and the 
bottom rendered wider and less distinct than before. Its measure- 
ments, which we were not prepared to take, deserve to be ascer- 
tained and compared with those given by Herodotus. "J 

* Dr. Chandler, D. D. , Fellow of Magdalen College and of the Society of Anti- 
quarians, gives ancient authority for what he states. But his name is sufficient 
guarantee for the truth of what he relates. So the references are omitted here. 

t There are, or were, in the Crimea, enormous tumuli covered in some in- 
stances with blocks of limestone, three feet square. This monument of Alyattes 
may have been stripped of similar stones to erect more modern buildings, and 
thus the "mould has been washed down." 

X "Travels in Asia Minor and Greece," by E. Chandler, D.D., in 1764 to 
1766. 



CHAP. III.] 



OF AMERICA. 



13 



CHAPTER III. 

Chevalier's Visit to the Plains of Troy — The Tumulus of Eesyetes Built Before 
the Trojan War — The Tumulus of Protesilaus — Alexander's Visit to the 
Plains of Troy— Alexander Erects "Altars" — Tumuli at Segeum, to 
Jupiter, Minerva, and Hercules — The Tumulus of Demaratus — Alexander 
Erects Twelve "Altars" in India — The Scythian Tumuli in the Borys- 
thenes— Herodotus' s Account of Them and Dr. Hall's Account of Them 
— Edmund Spencer's Account of Museum of Kertch and of the Opening 
of a Tumulus in the Crimea, in the Year 1836 — Tumuli in the Crimea of 
Prodigious Size and in Immense Numbers. 

A hundred years ago, 1792, Chevalier visited the Plains of Troy. 
In his book entitled " Description of the Plains of Troy," he says : 
" I have not the smallest hesitation in believing that the hillock in 
the vicinity of Udjek, and which is known by the name of Udjek- 
Tepe, is a sepulchre ; and every circumstance induces me to be- 
lieve that it is the tomb of Eesyetes, a monument of the most 
remote antiquity, as it existed even before the time of the Trojan 
War. Homer alludes to it, and Strabo places it five stadia distant 
from Troy, on the road leading from there to Alexandrea Troas." 
Besides this tomb, Chevalier mentions the tumuli of Ilus, Patro- 
clus, Antilochus, and Hector, and quotes the following : " When 
Alexander (according to what has been collected from various an- 
cient authors by Freinshemius in his supplement to Quintus 
Curtius) arrived at Sestos, he commanded Parmenio to proceed 
with the greatest part of his troops to Abydos, on the opposite 
shore. Himself at the head of the rest marched to Eleus, a place 
sacred to Protesilaus, whose sepulchre under a mound of earth 
had been constructed there ; for Protesilaus in the flower of his 
age accompanied his countrymen to Asia, and was the first victim 
of the Trojan war. On this occasion Alexander performed 
funeral honors to his manes, praying that his own lot might be 
more auspicious when he should reach the hostile shore. He then 
sailed with fifty vessels for Sigeum, and the Grecian haven, so 
called because it had received the Grecian ships in the time of the 
Trojan war. When the fleet arrived at the haven, altars were 
erected on the spot where he had disembarked to Jupiter the Pro- 
tector, to Minerva, and Hercules. He also commanded altars to 
be erected in that part of Europe whence he had sailed." Such 
altars were often erected on the spur of the moment, when they 
were constructed of earth or stones collected on the spot, and it is 



14 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. III. 



probable that on this occasion the altars were made in this man- 
ner. " He next proceeded into the fields where the seat of ancient 
Troy was pointed out to him, and there, as he was accustomed to 
admire Achilles, and glory in his descent from that hero, he 
stripped himself and ran with his friends quite naked around his 
tomb ; he even anointed it and adorned it with a crown. Hep- 
hestion, too, crowned the tomb of Patroclus, as an emblem that 
the friendship which subsisted between himself and Alexander 
was as ardent as that which Patroclus had borne to Achilles.' ' 

The expression in this quotation, that Alexander crowned the 
tomb, does not convey the correct idea. He anointed and 
crowned the column erected on the summit of the mound or tomb, 
it being then and afterwards the custom among the Greeks to erect 
engraven columns on the summits of such mounds. Arrian men- 
tions the fact of Alexander having anointed the column. 

Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, says that " Demaratus, the 
Corinthian, though far advanced in years, was ambitious of going 
to see Alexander," who had then conquered Asia. " Accordingly 
he took the voyage, and when he beheld him he said : ' The Greeks 
fell short of a great pleasure who did not live to see Alexander 
upon the throne of Darius.' But he did not live to enjoy the 
king's friendship. He sickened and died soon after. The king, 
however, performed his obsequies in a most magnificent manner, 
and the army threw up for him a monument of earth of great 
extent and fourscore cubits high." 

Arrian mentions that when Alexander prepared to leave India 
he ordered twelve altars to be erected, equal in height to so many 
fortified towers, but far exceeding them in bulk ; on these he 
offered sacrifices to the gods and gave them thanks for making him 
thus far victorious, and consecrated them as eternal monuments of 
his labors. These altars were probably built on the spur of the, 
moment, and were huge mounds made either of earth or of stone 
as they far exceeded towers in bulk, and according to Diodorus 
were fifty cubits high. 

The Scythians, who six hundred years before Christ occupied a 
vast territory north of the Euxine Sea, and extending from the 
Borysthenes or Dnieper to the Tonais or Don, buried their kings 
near the Borysthenes and erected huge mounds over them. In 
speaking of the burial of the Scythian kings, Herodotus says : 
" The sepulchres of the kings are in the district of the Gherri. As 
soon as a king dies a large trench of quadrangular form is sunk 
near where the Borysthenes begins to be navigable. When this 
has been done the body is inclosed in wax, after it has been thor- 



CHAP. III.] 



OF AMERICA. 



15 



oughly cleansed and the entrails taken out; before it is sewn up 
they fill it with anise, parsley-seed, bruised cypress, and various 
aromatics. They then place it in a carriage and remove it to an 
other district, where similar honors are paid it as at the first place. 
After thus transporting the body through the different provinces 
of the kingdom, they came at last to the Gherri, who live in the 
remotest parts of Scythia, and among whom the sepulchres are. 
Here the corpse is placed upon a couch, around which, at differ- 
ent distances, daggers are fixed ;* upon the whole are disposed 
pieces of wood covered with branches of willow. In some other 
part of this trench is put one of the deceased's concubines, whom 
they previously strangle, together with the baker, the cook, the 
groom, his most confidential servant, his horses, the choicest of his 
effects, and finally some golden goblets ; to conclude all, they fill 
up the trench with earth, and seem to be emulous in their endeav- 
ors to raise as high a mound as possible." 

DeHell, who, in 1838, visited the estate of Vassal, on the Dnieper, 
the ancient Borysthenes, thus speaks of the country : " It presents 
to view only a vast desert with numerous tumuli, salt lakes, and 
a few sheepfolds. These tumuli, from ten to fifteen yards high, 
are the only hills in the country, and appear to be the burial-places 
of its old masters, the Scythians. Several of them have been 
opened, and nothing found in them but some bones, copper coins 
of the kings of the Bosphorus, and coarse earthern utensils. 
Similar tombs in the Crimea have been found to contain objects 
of more value, both as regards material and workmanship. This 
difference is easily accounted for ; the Milesian colonies that oc- 
cupied part of the Crimea two thousand years ago spread a taste 
for opulence and the fine arts all through the peninsula ; their 
tombs would therefore bear token of the degree of civilization they 
had reached. They had a regular government, princes, and all 
the elements and accessories of a kingdom ; whilst the poor 
Scythians, divided into nomad tribes, led a rude life in the midst 
of the herds of cattle that constituted their sole wealth." 

In the year 1836 Edmund Spencer visited the Crimea. He 
says: "We entered the Cimmerian Bosphorus. We were now in 
the centre of countries connected with some of the most brilliant 
periods in the history of the Greeks and Romans. These were 
the countries that formed the emporium of the commerce of 
Athens, which enriched her citizens and established her as a great 

* An Indian tribe of the West performed this same ceremony of fixing — not 
daggers — but arrows around the tomb or grave of their deceased countrymen. 



16 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. III. 



maritime power, and afterward witnessed some of the greatest 
triumphs of mighty Rome. Indeed, each side of the strait abounds 
with objects to interest the traveller, in the numerous ruins of its 
ancient cities, and in the surprising number and size of the 
sepulchral tumuli everywhere visible." He thus speaks of the 
Museum of Kertch and of some of the tumuli in its vicinity : 
" We then extended our promenade to the Museum, the collection 
of which has been considerably augmented since the opening of 
a tumulus in 1830, called by the Tartars Allyn Obo, or the hill of 
gold, pretended to be the tomb of Mithridates. The immense 
quantity of bronze gilt vases, gold ornaments, and trinkets then 
found, fully justifies the appellation ; they were all of the most 
exquisite workmanship. The Museum contains, in addition, a 
very choice collection of statues, vases, and medals, the whole 
found in the environs, and unquestionably of Grecian workman- 
ship. 

" The acquisition of these treasures generated the desire to open 
another of these tumuli : and the authorities of Kertch selected 
one whose dimensions were similar to those of Allyn Obo, that is 
about thirt}^ feet high, and employed a number of men for several 
weeks in its excavation. After much labor and a useless search, 
they at length came to an enormous slab. The work of raising 
the ponderous slab, which had been placed over the tomb in 
the form of a cross, slowly proceeded, and when, after much labor, 
the massive stone was removed, we beheld a square trough of cut 
stone, with a wooden box in the centre containing a bronze urn, 
gilt, of the most graceful form and elaborate workmanship. The 
whole was carried to Kertch, a few leagues distant, but when 
opened, was found to enclose no other treasure than the ashes of 
him who had been there interred. These remains, perhaps of a 
prince or hero, I afterwards saw carried out by a servant and 
thrown upon a dunghill ! 

" The tumuli of these countries are exceedingly interesting ; the 
prodigious size and immense numbers we find, both here and in 
the adjoining island of Tamana, incontestibly prove that it was a 
country once occupied by a great and powerful people. That they 
were opulent, the variety of gold ornaments, beautiful vases, ex- 
quisite statues, and sculptured tombs found in the neighborhood 
sufficiently shows. With regard to the origin of the existence of 
these mounds, if we may depend upon the traditionary accounts 
of the descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants, some of whom 
are still to be found in the mountainous districts of the Crimea, 
these tumuli were voluntarily erected by the people ; as when any 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



17 



of their great warriors or kings expired, his ashes were placed in 
the tomb, and every man who admired his virtues carried a por- 
tion of earth and threw it over his grave. 

" Be this as it may, they certainly have not been formed of earth 
excavated in the vicinity, which is always perfectly level, and 
some geologists go so far as to say that the earth of which they 
are composed is different in its nature from that on which it 
stands. 

"However, the idea of a mountain tomb being formed as a trib- 
ute of the voluntary admiration of an entire people for a chief 
whose loss they deplore, is beautiful and affecting. The tradition 
of the Tartars is not, however, without some foundation in truth, 
for the cairns of the Scots were erected in a similar manner, and 
in the north of Scotland an expression of friendship and affection 
still remains among the people, to this effect : ' I will cast a stone 
upon thy cairn.' " 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Miletian and Heraklian Settlements in the Crimea — The Tumuli near the 
Theodocian Gate at Kertch — Their Contents — A Particular Description of 
Two Great Tumuli near Kertch, and of their Contents. , 

The Miletians" (Ionians) and Heraklians (Dorians), in the 
seventh century before Christ, planted colonies in the Crimea. 
The origin of the city of Miletus in Caria, is within the period of 
the first Greek emigration from home. The place was first settled 
by natives of the country, to whom came Sarpedon of Miletus, in 
Crete, and after him Neleus, from Attica. Miletus was already 
large and flourishing when the cities of the parent country were 
just beginning to emerge from obscurity. It was already a power- 
ful city when the Lydian monarchs rose into consequence. Almost 
all the Greek cities along the coast of the Euxine Sea were of 
Miletian origin. Pliny makes them to have been eighty in num- 
ber, and Seneca seventy-five. 

Heraclea is a name given to more than forty towns in Europe, 
Asia, Africa, and the islands of the Mediterranean. They are sup- 
posed to have derived this appellation from the Greek name of 
Hercules, and to have either been built in honor of him or placed 
under his protection. The city of this name that settled colonies 
in the Crimea is Heraclea Pontica, on the coast of Bithynia. which 
was founded by a colony of Megarians, strengthened by some 



18 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. IV. 



Tanagreans from Boeotia. The number of the former, however, so 
predominated, that the city was in general considered as Doric. It 
was famed for its naval power and its consequence among the 
Asiatic states. 

In travelling from Theodosia to the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the 
traveller on reaching Suftanofka, the third station, seventy- 
seven versts from Theodosia, for the first time sees the horizon 
crowned by the tumuli and coral-rag peaks which characterize 
the environs of Kertch. After the long journey over an uninter- 
rupted steppe slight undulations appear above the horizon, in ap- 
proaching the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and shortly after this appear- 
ance the traveller finds himself in a principal necropolis of the 
ancient Miletian city. Immense cones of earth rise on each side 
of the road, and ridges of coral-rag lying among these sepulchral 
monuments give a grand aspect to this singular field of death. 
On arriving at the end of the plateau, the view extends over the 
whole Bosphorus. On an evening in summer the last rays of the 
setting sun tint the cliffs on the Asiatic side. The outlines of the 
tumuli of Phanagoria become distinctly traced on the blue sky, 
and the shadow of Cape Akbouroun stretches over the water [1].* 

Descending the plateau, the traveller enters the town of Kertch. 
The straits on which it stands, leading from the Black Sea to the 
Sea of Azof, and separating Europe from Asia, are about eight 
miles wide. It is now the chief town of a little government com- 
prising Yenicaleh, a few miles distant, and about thirteen thou- 
sand acres of land, which form the eastern point of the peninsula. 
Kertch, like all Greek colonies, is charmingly situated [2]. A hill, 
called the arm-chair of Mithridates, rises at a short distance 
from the shore and gently slopes down to the sea. Around this 
hill was originally built the old Greek town, and on its sides were 
once clustered a variety of Greek temples, crowned on the top by 
the acropolis, which in Greek cities was nothing more than the 
walls surrounding the sacred spot in which was placed the tutelary 
deity, upon the safe custody of which the security of the town was 
supposed to depend.f 

The interior of the acropolis, which was two hundred yards 
square, allowed plenty of room for the' erection of two sanctuaries, 
one to Cybele and the other to Ceres, and still left space for the 
lodgings of the priests and the garrison and for the palace of Mithri- 
dates the Great, who came here to die. The acropolis of Athens 

* The numbers in brackets refer to plates. 

f It is singular how certain superstitious ideas are transmitted from one gen- 
eration to another through ages, and from one religion to another. 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



19 



had not more available room than that of Panticapa-um. The 
plateau of the hill enclosed in the walls of the town was also orna- 
mented with palaces, and perhaps temples. The inscriptions and 
medals of Panticapa?um show that there was the worship of seve- 
ral other divinities besides Cybele and Ceres.* 

The ancient name of Kertch was Panticapseum, and it was one 
of the many Miletian colonies founded on the Black Sea in the 
seventh century before Christ. In its palmiest days the territory 
extended as far north as the Tanais, while to the west it was 
bounded on the inland side by the mountains of Theodocia. This 
fertile and narrow region was the granary of Greece, especially of 
Athens. Although there are no fine buildings, or even fragments, 
left standing, heaps of brick and pottery and the foundations of 
buildings encumber the soil for a considerable distance round the 
Hill of Mithridates, and show how great was the extent of the 
ancient city. 

The acropolis occupied the summit of the Hill of Mithridates, in 
shape an irregular polygon, and the ditches and some parts of the 
walls, of coarse limestone of Kertch, may still be traced. It is proba- 
ble that in very early times the bay advanced much farther into 
the land, and that the Hill of Panticapaeum was bounded on three 
sides by the sea. In the midst of the immense ruins which cover 
the surrounding country may be traced the principal streets, which 
ended at the gates of the town. The base of the peak is hidden 
under a mass of ruins, and the whole rock has been carefully hewn. 

There are no signs of aqueducts in the acropolis, but the lower 
town was probably supplied with water from two springs at the 
bottom of the valley, which now furnish the two principal foun- 
tains of Kertch. One is within the old fortifications, and has 
been repaired by the Turks with the fragments of ancient marbles, 
on one of which is an inscription showing it to have belonged to 
a monument of Sauromates III, raised to his father, Mithridates 
Eupator (162 A.D.)t 

The principal gate of the town was turned towards the interior 
of the peninsula in the centre of the western wall. It led to 
Nymphseurn and Theodosia, and the place is easily recognized by 
the interruption of the deep ditch which ran along it. About 240 
yards from the gate the road which led to Theodosia reached an 

* Excavations made at the foot of the rock discovered a fine torso, in white 
marble, of a colossal statne of Cybele — the same as Astarte or the Eastern 
Venus. 

f Mithridates Eupator, Mithridates the Great, born 131 or 1?2 B.C.. died 63 
B.C., reigned fifty-seven years. 



20 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[chap. rv. 



allee of tumuli, ranged several rows deep on each side in an irreg- 
ular manner, and continued two-thirds of a mile. This long series 
of tombs seems to date in a great measure from the foundation of 
the town of the Miletians. At a later period the dwelling of the 
dead became more extended, and occupied the range of hills in 
continuation of Mount Mithridates for six or seven miles in length, 
and here are found the tombs of the kings. Tumuli are also found 
on the other side of the low plain to the north, where they form 
three grand groups, the best known of which is near the modern 
quarantine. The gate to the north of the Theodosia gate led to 
the Greek city of Dia, near Kamish-batoun, and the road crossed 
the hill through a gentle dip. Along it were the tombs of the poor 
people, who buried their urns and cinders around the corahrag 
peak, two hundred and forty-five feet above the level of the bay. 

Afterwards, as the bay became filled up. the population descended 
and left the site of the old town, until, in the fourth century, soon 
after Kertch became converted to Christianity, its kings disap- 
peared, and barbarous hordes destroyed all the cities of the Bos- 
phorus. The Panticapseum of the Eastern empire was a decayed 
and unimportant town. 

As soon as there was space enough on the sea-shore the inhabit- 
ants fortified themselves there: and the Miletian acropolis, with its 
temples and palaces, has ever since served as a cemetery. By ex- 
cavations to the depth of eight or ten feet were found broken 
Etruscan pottery, fragments of marble, and building-stones with 
inscriptions. In the midst of this new soil were a number of 
tombs irregularly placed, one on the other, containing stone coffins, 
made of thin layers of Kertch limestone, filled simply with bones, 
which proved them to be Christians. 

The Greeks never allowed the dead to be placed near the Temple 
of the Gods, as their contact was considered pollution. 

■■ The enormous quantity of tumuli around Kertch (Pantica- 
pseuru) forms one of the distinguishing features of the place. Many 
of them have been opened, and unfortunately without sufficient 
care. The tumuli on the shores of the Bosphorus are essentially 
Miletian. This is also remarkable on the Asiatic side, where the 
towns of Sindes have no monuments of this kind, while Phana- 
goria. Kepos, -Kimmericum, which are known Miletian colonies, 
are surrounded by them. The same is the case on the European 
shore, where Panticapaeum. Myrmekium, Porthmium. Nymphseum. 
Miletian towns, are distinguished from a distance by the multitude 
of their tumuli, while the other Kimmericum, now Opouk, and 
Kherson, colonies of Heraclea, and consequently Dorian, have 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



21 



none. The same is the case with the towns of the Tauri, except 
the residence of Skilouros, near Simpheropol, which has a few 
tumuli near its walls. It would be curious to inquire what is the 
reason of the tumulus being peculiar to the Ionic race." 

The group of tumuli near the Theodosia gate are the most 
ancient, as is proven by the nature of the objects found in them, 
and by their worn appearance.* The tumuli near the quarantine 
are clearly less ancient than those on the road to Theodosia. They 
are less worn by time, of more colossal dimensions, and their in- 
terior construction and the objects contained in them show a more 
advanced state of civilization. These tumuli were also crossed by 
a public road, which branched off on the right to Myrmekium and 
on the left to Porthmium. The greater number contain vaults 
built of masonry, instead of excavations in the limestone, and 
their floor is on the same level as the ground outside. The arch 
of the ceiling is formed by each row of stones projecting more 
than the one below, until they almost touch at the top, and there 
are several tombs in the same tumulus. On cutting through one, 
on the new road to Yenicaleh,f three tombs were found. The 
two first were those of men. as was proven by two swords and 
a lance which were found in them, and in the third was the skele- 
ton of a woman crowned with leaves of golden laurel. 

There were also the following golden ornaments : Ear-rings two 
inches long. A large bulla, like the fastening of a bell, with a head 
of Mercury upon it. Many plates of gold which had fallen from 
the dress, now disappeared, on which were embossed vine-leaves 
and bunches of grapes. There were two rings, one very massive, 
with a stone having a head upon it, and the other with a stone cut 
into the shape of a lion couchant, and there was another represent- 
ing two owls. By the side of the body was a gold coin of Philip 
of Macedon. 

* Blarenberg excavated four of them in 1824, which had not been previously 
opened. The head was generally surrounded by leaves of beaten gold, of which 
it was the custom to make a crown. Among the articles found in one tomb are : 
A bust of Isis in terra-cotta, a fragment of Serapis in plaster, a fragment of a 
large necklace in carbonate of silver, finished by two heads of lions ; two medals 
in bronze of KingEumeles (died B.C. 304), having on one side a head of Apollo 
and on the reverse a Priapus before a branch of myrtle ; a pair of golden brace- 
lets, beautifully worked ; two golden ear-rings, with small cupids, ornamented 
with precious stones; two golden rings, with convex green stones; a golden 
ring, with an engraved stone of Minerva, very fine; a golden pin, with a stone 
on which is a butterfly; a silver pin, with an engraved stone, with a head ; four 
chalcedony ear-drops, and some leaves in beaten gold. 

f Yenicaleh is at the point of the peninsula, about seven miles northeast of 
Kertch. 



22 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. IV. 

At the same time another discovery was made by chance. 
By the side of the third tomb a fourth was found, in which were 
two large Etruscan vases, and one amphora about the head of the 
dead, who was crowned with leaves of golden laurel ; with it were 
two necklaces, a pair of precious ear-rings, and a coin, all of gold. 
It is interesting to find on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosphorus 
the same vases which in Italy are called Etruscan, from the place 
in which they were first found. They were soon known, however, 
not to be peculiar to Etruria ; and Magna Grsecia was discovered 
to be a still more prolific mine of them. Further researches es- 
tablished the fact that wherever Greece had carried her civiliza- 
tion and her colonies these vases were found, and that there was 
not a spot within these limits, even as far as the banks of the 
Kuban and the Sea of Azof, which did not possess this kind of 
pottery, manufactured on the spot. 

The funeral vases, wide below, with narrow necks, nine to fifteen 
inches high, are found in the tombs, always with two handles, and. 
two compositions painted on them, one on each side, differing both 
in execution and the style of the subject. On comparing them with 
those found in Italy, they will be seen to be precisely similar, 
even to the singular difference in the two compositions which or- 
nament them. The one is always some scene in private or public 
life, and the design is elegant and the execution very careful. 
The other is a coarse sketch hastily done in a rough way, and an 
eternal repetition of the same personages, with some variation in 
the pose, the number of figures, and the emblems which accom- 
pany them.* The subjects chosen go to prove that they were 
manufactured at Panticapseum, for the griffin, which was the em- 
blem of that city, constantly appears, and various details of the 
Scythian costume. 

Three classes of tombs are still to be mentioned— those of the 
poor, the catacombs, and the tombs of the kings. On going out of 
the gate leading to Dia, along the mountain of Mithridates, there 
is an eminence which a gentleman began to excavate. His labors, 
however, seemed to end in the solid rock below a mass of amphorae 
which contained the cinders of the poor. At last he remarked a 
sepulchral slab, and lifting it up, found the entrance to a funeral 
cave. This was built with an Egyptian roof, and had been de- 
spoiled of everything precious, but was still most interesting from 
a suit of small pictures, drawn on the wall below the commence- 

* Some of the scenes relate to the mysteries of Ceres and the mysteries of 
Bacchus. The two have an intimate relation with each other, as they both come 
from the mysteries of Isis and Osiris. 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



2:{ 



ment of the roof, about a foot high, representing the war of the 
cranes and the pygmies. 

The catacombs are among the tumuli on the road to Theodosia, 
and are deep excavations fifteen or twenty feet deep, seven or 
eight feet long, and two and a half feet broad, and, on descending 
and entering by an arched door, large subterranean chambers are 
found cut in the white calcareous clay, with niches all around for 
the bodies. Some remains of coffins are to be found, and the whole 
is probably a Christian work. The last group of tumuli to be 
mentioned are those of the kings, at what is called the Golden 
Mountain. After following the old road to Theodosia for two 
miles, Mount Mithridates is seen to offer a passage across it by a 
narrow valley. The mountain rises again directly, and continues 
in a northwest direction to the Sea of Azof. This continuation is 
called the Golden Mountain. An enormous tumulus, which rises 
above the road where it passes between the hills, seems to an- 
nounce a more powerful race than that which raised the tombs of 
the plain. On the crest of the mountain, at three hundred and 
twenty-three feet above the level of the sea, rises the tumulus, in 
the form of a cone, one hundred feet high and one hundred and 
fifty in diameter, different from those in the neighborhood, because 
it is walled from top to bottom like a Cyclopean monument. It is 
cased on the exterior like the Pyramids, with large blocks of Kertch 
stone, cubes of three or four feet placed without cement or mortar. 
This monument; almost unique of its kind, from its size, was a 
tomb, and from all times had been the object of a number of mys- 
terious legends. The Tartar, Turk, and more ancient traditions, 
spoke of immense treasures hidden in this tomb, which was known 
by the name of Altun Obo, or the Golden Mountain. The tra- 
dition existed that there was an entrance to the tomb, which the 
Tartars had often tried to find, without success. It was not until 
1832 that Mr. Kareiche carefully sought for it, and employed 
thirty-five men for fifteen days in attacking the tumulus from the 
southwest. At last he had the good fortune to find the entrance to 
a gallery, by which he penetrated, without an obstacle, to the 
centre of the tumulus. The gallery was constructed of layers of 
worked stone, without cement, and was sixty feet long, ten feet 
high — taking in the Egyptian roof — and three or four feet broad. 
Arrived at the end, Kareiche found himself on the edge of a preci- 
pice which opened before him. He saw with astonishment that 
the centre of the tomb was formed of a circular tower twenty-five 
feet high and twenty feet in diameter. The floor of this construc- 
tion was ten feet below the floor of the gallery, and the vaulted 
roof was composed of four rows of advancing stones. 



24 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. IV. 



At length Kareiche saw that he could descend into the tomb 
by stones placed at distances in the side, and was hastening to 
reap the treasures promised in the legend, when to his stupefac- 
tion he perceived that the tomb was empty. On the ground was 
a large, square stone, on which a sarcophagus might have been 
deposited, and half-way up the wall was a large, empty niche. 
He searched in vain to penetrate further ; nothing indicated any 
passage, and it is still an enigma. What was the object of this 
expensive and magnificent monument, the rival of the Pyramids ? 
The distance between the tower and the exterior Cyclopean wall 
is filled with fragments of stone from the fine quarries in the 
neighborhood.* 

The modern Greek legend makes this the tomb of Mithridates, 
although it is well known that he was buried at Sin ope. This 
tomb is placed exactly at the spot where the two branches of the 
long rampart meet, which extends from the Black Sea to the Sea 
of Azof. It — the rampart — is visible extending from the foot of 
the tumulus to the gorge of Katerles, which opens in a second 
range of hills parallel to the Golden Mountain and Mount Mithri- 
dates, and the peaks above it are covered with ruins. To the 
south the rampart is quite effaced, where the road to Theodosia 
crosses it, but beyond it its zigzags are seen as far as the White 
Cape, where it of course terminates. 

This rampart was probably the ancient boundary of the terri- 
tory of Panticapseum, and the primitive kingdom of the Bospho- 
rus before the conquest of Nymphseum and Theodosia, which 
were added to the kingdom, the first in 410 B.C., and the second 
about 390 b.c. 

Within the ramparts, at one hundred and fifty paces to the 
east, near Kertch, there is another monument of the same kind as 
the other, but unfinished. It consists of a circular esplanade five 
hundred paces around and one hundred and sixty-six in diame- 
ter, with an exterior covering of Cyclopean masonry, built of 
worked stone, three feet long and high. There are five layers of 
these, but it seems to have been the intention of the builders to 
raise a monument like the one before mentioned. Perhaps a 
revolution, or the death of the prince who was building his own 
monument, like the kings of Egypt, caused the work to be aban- 
doned. Several ranges of enormous stones between this and the 
first monument indicate ancient walls of houses, and adjoining 
these are traces of ancient gardens, while on the slope of the 

* Spencer, in his " Travels in Circassia, Krim Tartary," etc., in 1832, says 
the tumulus called by the Tartars Altyn Obo, or the Hill of Gold, pretended to 
have been the tomb of Mithridates, was opened in 1830. 




/O /2 8 4- 
1 1 1) 



VerscKok, 



Ar chines* 



INTERIOR OF ROYAL lOMB OF KOULO&A, HEAR KERTCH.-f* 



A . Vestibule. 
B . Tomb of King. 

C . Bones of Ike king. 

D . Bones of ike Qu.ee rt. 
1, Eea^ of sH.arp flints., 

2 . Aims and whin- of King. 

3 . "Five statuettes in. elecoi 

4 . ALten.da.nt of King 



(5. Hundreds of ox ro uj Tt£.ads . 

7. Two large lances. 

8, Qu.eeu'3 golden vase. 
O. Crater w silver. 

10. Second crater. 

11. A.mp}vor 6S-, con.laxn.tn-g wine of Tnasixs. 
IS- Bronze vase . 
13. Silver ^uilt plate- 



s'. JBon.es of cL"kor«e, wilK. greaves and l4-.Bron.xe saucepans, -with, mutton, bones. 
Helmet. 



1 arch, me = 28 mckes. 



If Trom Dubois* Alias . 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



25 



mountain, in the midst of the ruins, near Khouter Scassi, there i - 
a fine well in good preservation, cased with wrought stone and 
full of water. This seems extraordinary in the midst of a country 
now so dry, desert, and devoid of wood, but proves that in the 
time of Panticapseum the general aspect of the land was very dif- 
ferent, since country-houses and trees existed where there are now 
only wild rocks. 

The view from the summit of the hill, and still more so from 
the top of the tumulus, is magnificent, and extends as far as the 
rock of Opouk, the ancient Kimmericum, which is twenty-four 
miles distant. 

There is a spur of the Golden Mountain running south, called 
by the Tatars Kouloba,* or the hill of cinders, beyond the ancient 
rampart, and four miles from Kertch. Near it is a tumulus one 
hundred and sixty-five feet in diameter, and some soldiers, carry- 
ing away stones from it, discovered an interior construction [3]. 
They soon arrived at a vestibule six feet square, turned to the 
north, covered by an Egyptian roof of three rows of stones, which 
they were obliged to remove in order to penetrate further, because 
this roof was supported by beams reduced to dust. At the end 
of the vestibule was a door eight feet ten inches high and five feet 
nine inches wide, closed half-way up by large wrought stones, and 
above by those of the common size. Large pieces of wood formed 
the covering, but the beams were reduced to dust and the stones 
which closed the entrance supported the upper part, which 
threatened soon to fall. This difficulty was soon removed, and 
two savans, Mr. Dubrux and Dr. Lang, were commissioned by the 
Governor to enter alone and take an inventory of the contents. 
An immense crowd besieged the approaches, which were guarded 
by soldiers, while the commissioners entered. 

The tomb was almost square, measuring fifteen feet from east 
to west and fourteen feet from north to south, and the entrance- 
door was not in the centre of the wall. The walls were built of 
hewn stone, each three feet long and two feet high. Five rows of 
stones raised it to seven feet eight inches, and then began the 
spring of the Egyptian arch, formed of seven rows of advancing 
stones, the front row advancing five inches and the upper rows 
six or eight inches, so that at the top there only remained a space 
two feet square, filled by. a single stone. The tomb was thus six- 
teen feet high. At ten feet ten inches above the pavement began 
the wooden ceiling, which had fallen when the beams which sup- 



* " Dubois," vol. v., pp. 194-288. 



26 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. IV. 



ported it gave way. The floor had a stone pavement, and the 
principal place was occupied by a sarcophagus formed of a case 
of yew wood eight feet nine inches long and ten inches high, and 
was joined by thick beams, in which the outward planks were 
fitted. The side facing the interior of the tomb was open, and the 
interior was divided into two parts by a plank. In one of the com- 
partments, larger than the other, and nearer to the wall, was ex- 
tended the body (skeleton) of a man of great stature. The thigh- 
bone was seventeen and one-half inches long, and the skull 
extremely thick. On his brow were the remains of a mitra, or 
Persian cap, of which the top is narrower than the base. Two 
plates of gold ornamented the top and the bottom ; the one below 
was one and a half inches broad, ornamented with festoons and 
griffins, the emblem of Panticapaeum, and was of less careful 
workmanship than the upper plate, ornamented with figures, 
leaves and arabesques. Around the neck was a grand necklace 
in massive gold, of beautiful workmanship, in the form of an 
open ring and twisted like a cord, with the extremities passing 
one over the other. At each end was a Scythian on horseback, 
and the extremities were for a distance of two inches enameled 
with blue and green. Similar ones have frequently been found 
of copper, and rarely of any other metal, in the tombs of the 
north, and. among others, in those of the ancient Lithuanians. 
The arms were extended on each side of the body, and on the 
right arm above the elbow was a circle or bracelet in gold an inch 
broad, and adorned with reliefs. Below the elbows were two 
other bracelets in electrum * one and a half inches broad. A third 
pair of open bracelets in fine gold encircled the wrists and fin- 
ished in Persian winged sphinxes, the claws of which held the 
thick thread of gold which served to close the bracelet when it 
was passed over the wrist. The workmanship was very fine, and 
their thickness about half an inch. At the feet of the king were 
a multitude of little sharp flints piled up. In Scythian mourning 
it was customary to tear the face and the rest of the body with 
such instruments, and they were then placed in the tombs as a 
mark of grief; some bodies found in a tumulus near Simpherpol 
were covered with them. In the narrower compartment of the 
sarcophagus were placed the gods and arms of the king. First 
there was his iron sword, the handle of which, covered with 
leaves of gold, was adorned with figures of hares and foxes em- 
bossed on the gold. Beside the sword lay the Tcherkess or Cos- 



* A mixture of gold and silver. 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



27 



sack whip (called nogaik) adorned with a leaf of gold, and above 
it was the shield in fine gold. The thickness of the latter was 
about that of a five-franc piece, and its shape showed that it was 
principally a protection for the shoulder, and fitted to the arm. 
It was eight and a half inches long and seven and a half broad, 
and its weight was one and a half pounds of fine gold. The 
umbo or centre of the shield was surrounded by a simple circular 
fillet, and one with the egg pattern, leaving an interval of three 
and a half lines, in which were chiselled dolphins and other fishes. 
The rest of the shield was divided into twelve compartments by a 
fillet, and was covered with masques imitating the head of Me- 
dusa, alternating with faces with pointed beards, and flies and 
heads of sea-horses. 

The bow and its wooden case were reduced to dust, and 
there remained only the plate in electrum which ornamented the 
quiver. It was adorned with embossed work representing a wild 
goat seized by a tiger, and a deer attacked in front by the griffin 
of Panticapseum, and behind by the lion of Phanagoria. The 
deer was the emblem of the town of Diana, which was Kherson. 
A sea-horse filled the under-part of the plate, and a mask the 
other extremity. Above the tail of the tiger was written the 
Greek word 1WPNAX0, engraved on the metal. Some suppose 
this to mean Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, whose tomb this 
may be, but Dubois considers it the name of the artist, which, 
under the more recent form, $APNAK0r, frequently recurs in the 
inscriptions of Sindika, now Anapa. 

Among these arms was found one boot in bronze, and its fellow 
was on the right of the king, opposite the head. In the same com- 
partment and near the head of the king were found, in the exterior 
angle, five statuettes in electrum. One figure represented two Scyth- 
ians embracing one another and tightly holding a horn, probably 
filled with hydromel. The horn is like those which all the 
statues, or babas, so often found in one part of Southern Russia, 
hold with both hands. Another figure holds a purse in his right 
hand and a strange instrument in his left, and is like a Celtic 
Mercury. There was also the Scythian Hercules among these 
divinities. Their costume recalled the Sclavonic and Tatar 
dress, and particularly the tunic of sheepskin, which the Tatars 
call toun or teretoun, the Russians touloup, which was the Scythian 
garment found in the most ancient monuments. The fleece is 
turned inwards, or is only edged with fur, and it is found of all 
lengths, from the short Tatar tunic and the Sclavonic kalskaveika 
to the long sheepskin gown of the Russian peasant. These different 



28 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. IV. 



kinds are all visible in the different dresses of the figures of this 
tomb, where may be recognized the real Lithuanian sermedje and 
the Tcherkess tchok. 

Thus was arranged the sarcophagus of the king, and around it, 
on the pavement, were the objects which completed the furniture 
of the tomb, in which nothing had been forgotten which could 
contribute to the material needs of life. At his feet a kind friend 
had placed three large cauldrons of molten bronze. Two were oval 
or oblong and one was spherical, and all reposed on a cylindrical 
foot, of which the base spread out into three hooks, to fix it on the 
soil. These three vases had been often on the fire and used for 
cooking ; there was a thick coat of soot still on them, and the inte- 
rior was filled with mutton-bones. 

There was another oblong vase near the door, filled in the same 
manner. After the kitchen of the king came his provision of 
wine and his drinking-cups. The wine was contained in four am- 
phorae placed upright against the wall on the right. On the handle 
of one was inscribed 0AII and below A P ETON, and in the midst 
was a fish. , These, then, were filled with wine of Thasos, which, 
to judge by the quantity of amphorae found in the tombs bearing 
this name, was the favorite wine. Two large crater es were natu- 
rally placed near the amphorae, because the Scythians always 
drank wine mixed with water. The first, the nearest to the door, 
was of silver, nearly eighteen inches in diameter, and contained 
four drinking-cups in silver, two of which were of beautiful work- 
manship, particularly the one which terminated below in the head 
of a ram. The second cratere, in bronze, contained also four silver 
drinking-cups, the largest of which is ornamented with chiseled 
work gilt, on which may be recognized the birds and fishes of the 
Black Sea and the Cimmerian Bosphorus. On the right is a duck 
plunging and seizing a fish, and under it swims a labra and a stur- 
geon ; and further on a cormorant, with extended wings, is seizing, 
while flying, a small fish. On another is a combat of a wild boar 
about to yield under the claws of a lion. 

On the right is a tour a* of the Caucasus, brought to the ground 
by two griffins of Panticapaeum. On the left the deer of Kherson 
suffers the same fate, being torn by a lion, while a female leopard, 
with open mouth, is about to seize it by the throat. In the part 
which the wild boar, the deer and the toura play in the midst of 

* 1 ' The toura is an animal in the Caucasus, like a wild bull, with enormous horns 
and very thick skull, as it throws itself down precipices on its head. It is the 
famous game of the Mingrelians and Ossete princes." 

Singular that this bull should so much resemble a Kocky Mountain sheep. 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



29 



griffins and lions there is a manifest design. The lion of Phana- 
goria and the griffin of Panticapgeum are not always represented 
as victorious without intention, while the deer of Kherson, the 
toura of the Caucasus and the wild boar of the Kuban are alwaye 
vanquished by them. 

Beyond the drinking-cups were two lances and several bundles 
of arrows laid along the wall. The last had triangular points in 
bronze, with three barbs, and are similar to those found in Scythian 
monuments in Southern Russia. Between the arrows and the sar- 
cophagus there appeared a second skeleton, laid on the pavement 
and much covered with earth, but adorned so richly that it was 
impossible not to recognize the wife of the king, who thus accom- 
panied him to his last resting-place. She was laid in the same 
direction as the king, and wore on her forehead a mitre as he, 
with a plate in electrum terminating it, which showed a skilful 
workman. Four women in Greek costume sit in the midst of 
garlands of lotuses, the stalks of which form seats and backs. Four 
masks of lions formed on each side the means by which the plate 
was attached to the mitre. On the bottom the mitre was bordered 
by a diadem of gold adorned all round with small enamelled rosettes. 
She bore on her neck, like the king, a grand necklace with the 
ends movable, and, instead of horsemen, the extremities were 
formed of couchant lions. She had on, besides, another necklace 
of gold filigree, to which were suspended small chains supporting 
small bottles of fine gold. Five medallions of exquisite workman- 
ship and different sizes descended on her bosom, and they were 
fastened together by small chains and bottles. These were enam- 
elled blue and green like other objects that have been mentioned. 
The two largest of the medallions represented Greek Minervas, 
but evidently worked at Panticapseum, because of the chiselled 
griffins on the wings of her helmet. The attributes of Minerva, 
besides the owl and the winged Pegasus, are the serpents of Me- 
dusa which ought to ornament her shield, a winged sphinx like 
that on the bracelets of the king, and a row of deer-heads on the 
visor of the helmet. The arabesque which surrounds the helmet 
is also enamelled [4]. 

At the foot of the skeleton was discovered a magnificent vase in 
electrum, resembling, in form and size, those of the second cratere, 
which stands on a foot. It probably contained perfumes, partic- 
ularly as some of the little bottles, usually called lachrymatories, 
were found, as in the other tombs. The exquisite chisellings upon 
it are of the greatest interest for art and history. Four groups of 
figures succeed each other as episodes in the same history, in which 



30 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. IV. 



the personage playing the principal part reappears three times. 
In the first group, beginning from left to right, he is seated, the 
two hands and the head leaning on the lance, listening attentively 
to the report of a warrior. The king is known by the royal band 
around his head, perhaps the very one that is placed in the tomb. 
His costume is completely Scythian ; he has the narrow trousers, 
the boots, and the tchok which has been described. The warrior 
who makes the report is also a Scythian, kneeling before him, 
dressed as on the Etruscan vases, and armed with lance and buck- 
ler. Neither the one nor the other has the warlike quiver. 
Their hair is long and spread over their shoulders, but the bearer 
of the dispatch has no diadem ; he wears only the bachelik of the 
Caucasus, or the Phrygian bonnet — or, rather, the Lithuanian bon- 
net — which has for many centuries remained the same. The next 
figure, with its back to the messenger and kneeling on one knee, 
is much occupied in bending a bow, which may Be that of the 
king ; for this warrior has his own by his side. They are prepar- 
ing for war. This war then takes place; and next are depicted the 
fruits of it, for the king has been badly wounded. He is recog- 
nized in the half-sitting, half-kneeling figure, from whom the Scyth- 
ian magus is extracting a tooth from the left side of the jaw. 
On examining the skull of the king deposited in the museum it 
may be seen that the lower jaw presents the marks of a wound, 
with a fracture which has carried away several teeth ; for the two 
large teeth are wanting, and a third, shorter than the others, has 
been attacked by a disease which has made the jaw swell. 

A fourth episode represents the king wounded in the leg ; a 
warrior is fomenting it with bandages. In this place the trousers 
and a part of the tchok is covered with something that looks like 
embroidery. These are the little golden and electrum scales sewed 
on the garments. Strabo says that the Aorses on the banks of the 
Tanais wear gold on their garments.* These little scales are em- 
bossed, pierced with holes at the sides to sew them on, and repre- 
sent an infinity of subjects. This tomb furnishes some very rich 
examples of them. 

On attentively examining the interior when it was first opened, 
it was perceived that at the foot of the walls were heaped up an in- 
finity of these little plates. The walls showed signs of having had 
pegs of wood fixed in them, to which were suspended the rich 
wardrobes of these great personages. The clothes had fallen, and 
nothing was found but a mass of dust, mixed with these little 



* " Strabo," lib. xi., p. 486. 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



31 



plates, which were carefully collected. The greater number were 
in the form of triangles or roses of different sizes, without any re- 
lief ; on others were fine heads of women or divinities, and figures 
of griffins, lions, hares, foxes and other animals. One of them, 
with the figure of a woman upon it, proves that if the men of that 
period wore the Caucasian dress, the same was the case with the 
women, whose long veil or tchadra seems just the same as that 
which the Caucasian women still wear. The robe is flowing. One 
of the women bears in her hand a goblet, and in the other a key. 
Another little plate represents two Scythian archers back to back, 
ready to shoot their arrows. Two others represent Scythian hunt- 
ers on horseback, pursuing a hare. In the left hand they hold 
the reins and in the right the javelin. 

By the side of the queen were found two golden bracelets, 
with bas-reliefs in two ranges ; that is to say, six figures in each 
bracelet, the breadth of which is three and a half inches. Around 
the head were disposed six knives, with handles of ivory,* the 
blades of which were like surgical instruments. A seventh knife 
had a handle of gold and reliefs upon it. A bronze mirror with 
a handle of gold, ornamented with a griffin pursuing a deer in re- 
lief, was also one of the objects which surrounded the queen. 

According to the Scythian customs the queen must have been 
strangled before being placed in the tomb of her husband, and the 
same cruel laws required the presence of the king's servant. He 
was found, accordingly, stretched across the tomb, along the 
southern wall, and around him were many plates of gold. His 
helmet and greaves, in silver, very much oxidized, were laid, with 
the bones of a horse, in an excavation two feet square, which occu- 
pied the southeast corner of the tomb. Among the things that 
were taken out of the cavern were several highly-worked pieces of 
wood which belonged to musical instruments, the only thing want- 
ing to complete the whole establishment. Several of the pieces 
showed designs, executed with an engraver's point, of exquisite 
workmanship. These were a chariot, a woman holding a helmet 
in her hand, a slave with a large bowl giving drink to a horse, some 
women seated, and other designs. 

If all the objects which adorned the inside of the tomb bear the 
stamp of Scythian ideas and the customs and usages of that na- 
tion, the same cannot be said of the ornaments and pictures of the 
sarcophagus of yew wood, which presents in perfect preservation 
paintings on wood which have resisted upwards of twenty centu- 



* Ivory would seem to indicate an intercourse with India or Africa. 



32 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. IV. 



ries. These paintings covered the panels of the sarcophagus. The 
principal subject is entirely Greek, and proves that if they buried 
a king surrounded by Scythian luxury, Greek artists were em- 
ployed at his interment. Two Victories, mounted on chariots, 
turned one against the other, filled the extremity of the picture, 
of which seven Greek figures, in different positions, occupied the 
centre, three women and four men. A goose and a swan are 
mixed with these figures, all represented as very agitated, running, 
gesticulating, with expressions of joy, which is justified by the 
approach of the two triumphal cars. The chariots are drawn by 
four white horses, two of which are spotted. On the frieze which 
surrounded the panel above, the artist has represented warriors 
drawing the bow. 

When the tomb was opened the savans deputed for the purpose 
were busy in making a plan and putting down the position of each 
object which they found. This occupied the whole day, while two 
soldiers guarded the entrance. These gentlemen in the evening 
thought their work was finished, but, for greater protection, the 
sentinels kept at their post, with orders to let no one pass. The 
crowd which visited the tomb during the night from curiosity was 
so great that the sentinels could not keep it back. The people 
penetrated into the tomb, examined everything, and then were dis- 
covered the little plates of gold which covered the pavement. 

While they were thus examining and disputing about the 
smallest spoils, some person perceived that the tomb resounded as 
if there was something hollow underneath. Raising the stones of 
the hollow square in the corner, they discovered a second tomb 
below, much richer than the first, and from this the masses of gold 
were drawn which for several years afterward were in circulation 
in Kertch. There was not a Greek woman there who did not re- 
tain some relic of this great discovery, especially in the form of 
ear-rings. It was said that no less than one hundred and twenty 
pounds weight of gold jewelry were extracted from these tombs, 
of which the Government obtained about fifteen pounds, and the 
rest was dispersed. In this pillage the people acted in the most 
barbarous manner; they tore the objects from one another, and 
chopped up the most precious with the hatchet. Such was the 
fate of the golden shield of the lower tomb, part of which the 
Government bought back, piece by piece, for the weight in gold. 
On one of the pieces recovered there was a Greek woman like a 
Fury, with her long hair blown by the tempest, bearing in her 
hands a lance and torch ; wolves, of which one carries a labrus 
in its mouth, surround her, and complete the picture of this ter- 



CHAP. IV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



33 



rible divinity. The tomb is probably anterior in date to the reign 
of Mithridates, both from the style of the ornaments and various 
minor circumstances. The letter F (P) is often repeated on the 
reliefs, and is written with one side shorter than the other, a form 
which quite disappears before the time of Mithridates the Great. 
It is so written on the great vase in electrum, which is of extraor- 
dinary enigmatical shape, representing a deer lying down, while 
on its sides are chiselled a griffin, a ram like the one of Jupiter 
Ammon, a lion, and a dog turning his head, all of which appear 
on the most ancient medals of Panticapseum. Again, the two me- 
dallions of Minerva with her attributes, of exquisite workmanship, 
must have been made at a time when the kings of the Bosphorus 
were proud of their alliance w T ith Athens and of being citizens of 
that city, as were Leucon, Pserisades I. and Eumeles. At a later 
period the connection ceased between the Bosphorus and Athens. 
There is, besides, no sign of the influence of Rome in any part of 
the tomb. Its construction is very ancient, and the idea of prop- 
ping the ceiling with posts is not found in any more recent tombs. 

The Scythian costume also was much in vogue under the Leu- 
conides, as most of the figures on the vases wear it. We might, 
indeed, expect at that period to find the Scythian manners and 
costumes by the side of the Greek worship. 

The value and abundance of the remains of antiquity found at 
Kertch naturally required a museum, which has been built by 
the Government on the Hill of Mithridates. It is an exact copy 
of the Temple of Theseus at Athens. When Dubois visited the 
museum, in 1832, there were three very curious skulls in it, with 
remarkably high foreheads, found in a very ancient tumulus near 
Yenicaleh, which probably belonged to the ancient Kimmerians. 
The only perfect skull had disappeared a few months afterwards, 
having been sold by the conservator for 100 francs to a stranger, 
who fortunately destined it for the museum at Munich, where it 
will be preserved. 

The quarantine is about three miles distant from Kertch, and 
within its boundary are the ruins of Myrmekium, the highest part 
of which is on a promontory overlooking the sea. Here, to hoist 
a flag-staff, some sailors made a hole in the rock, and were sur- 
prised to find the mast suddenly run down a considerable distance. 
On examining the ground they found that there was a tomb un- 
derneath, which had, however, been opened, and nothing remained 
in it but a very fine sarcophagus ornamented with bas-reliefs, 
which had been dragged towards the entrance and then left muti- 
lated. 

3 



34 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. IV. 



Yenicaleh is at the point of the peninsula, about seven miles 
from Kertch. Two ranges of hills with coral-rag peaks cross the 
peninsula of Kertch and terminate at the Bosphorus — the one 
at Yenicaleh and the other a little higher up. Between them was 
formerly a bay, which is now a salt lake closed by a sand-bar. 
Higher up the valley, ranged in an amphitheatre, are many differ- 
ent kinds of springs, and the celebrated mud volcanoes. 

At Cape Akbouroun, or the White Cape, there are two groups of 
tumuli. One group has seven tumuli of enormous size. The other 
extends along a ridge which joins the southern spur of the Golden 
Mountain. Near the last there is a high cliff, with a depression be- 
yond it, which has the appearance of an immense theatre overlook- 
ing the sea. This was the site of the old quarantine. There is here 
a rich mine of phosphate of iron. Between the iron mine and a 
country-house at Akbouroun are the ruins of Dia, which occupied 
the extreme southern point of the entrance of the ancient gulf of 
Nymphseum, now Lake Tchourbach. 

The ancient town of Nymphseum occupied exactly this south- 
ern point. On the angle between the ancient gulf and the Bos- 
phorus was situated the town, built on a kind of platform. The 
rampart is easily traced, and the faubourgs were around the me- 
tropolis. There are large masses of ruins everywhere, and the soil 
is several feet deep in broken pottery, much of which is Etruscan. 
At about one-third of a mile from the town the tumuli begin, and 
encircle it in great numbers. The town was founded at the same 
time as Panticapseum, and fell into the power of Pericles. It was 
betrayed into the pow,er of the Bosphorians in 410 B.C. In the 
time of Mithridates it was still a strong place, where he lodged the 
greater part of his army which he destined for his grand expedi- 
tion by the Danube and the Alps against the Romans. Nym- 
phseum in the time of Pliny existed only in name. 

At thirty miles from Kertch, on the coast of the Black Sea, is 
Opouk, a Tartar village, at the extremity of a fine roadstead. 
Near here, at a short distance from the shore, are two rocky 
islands called Karavi, and by these the place is identified as the 
ancient Kimmericum. Like all the towns of the peninsula of 
Kertch it was almost deserted in the time of Strabo, 50 B.C. to 30 
a.d., and at a later period was called Kibernicus. There is not a 
single tumulus to be seen, probably because Kimmericum was not 
a Miletian city. The Genoese are supposed to have carried away 
the remains of Kimmericum in order to build Kaffa* 

* " Russia on the Black Sea and Sea of Azof," by H. D. Seymour, M. P. 



CHAP. V.] 



OF AMERICA. 



35 



CHAPTER V. 

The Plain of Urmia, near Tabrez, in Persia — Tumuli near the Village of 
Dgalu — A Temple of the Ghebers or Fire-worshippers on the West Coast 
of the Caspian, near Bakoo, in the Year 1824 — Topes, Tepes or Tumuli Nu- 
merous in Afghanistan — The Word " Tepe " — Its General Use in Parts of 
Asia for Tumulus — The Turkoman Tepes or Tumuli — Turkoman Customs 
— Mounds on the Euphrates — The Mound of the Emperor Gordian. 

Dr. Moritz Wagner, who from February, 1842, spent three 
or four years travelling through Georgia, Persia and Koordistan, 
speaking of the country of the Kouban, a country between the 
Sea of Azof and the Caspian, north of the Circassian Mountains, 
and drained by the river Kouban, which empties into the Sea of 
Azof, says : " We continually noticed on these steppes solitary mo- 
hills, i.e., rude conical mounds, which are ascribed to the Moguls, 
and probably extend from the shores of the Euxine to the Caspian 
Sea." 

Speaking of the plain of Urmia, near Tabrez, or Tauris, in Per- 
sia, he says : " The plain of Urmia is about 50 miles long, and 18 
broad, and the eye embraces nearly its entire surface from Sier } 
nor have I ever seen a more careful cultivation of soil, a more 
judicious system of artificial irrigation, or a denser population. 
The vast area presents an endless series of villages, gardens and 
fields, as far as the eye can reach. The plain is not only inter- 
sected by minor cross-ridges, and broken by solitary elevations, 
but it presents a series of artificial mounds resembling the mohills 
of the Russian steppes, only more conspicuous and not of a conical 
shape. These mounds near Lake Urmia are covered with black 
earth, meadows and grass. When the earth is dug through there 
are discovered many earthen utensils, human skeletons and animal 
bones, broken pottery, copper and silver coins, mostly from the 
time of the Roman supremacy, and a few of the Persia era. We 
visited two or three mounds near the village Dgalu. I could trace 
at this place the vestiges of grand excavations, caverns a hundred 
paces in length,* where it was evident that search had been made 
for hidden treasures. The common result of such excavations is 
the discovery of some silver coins ; and in the most unsatisfactory 
cases the earth ashes, which always occur and are very useful as 
manure, offer some compensation for the trouble of the excava- 

* The inference is that the mound was a hundred or more paces in diameter, 
if the excavations were in a direct line. 



36 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. V. 



tions. The natives give no other name to these artificial mounds 
than Tepe, and the current traditions refer them to Zoroaster, the 
Magi, and the Fire-worshippers." 

It may not be amiss to mention here that in this same region 
there existed as late as the year 1824 a temple of the Ghebers or 
Fire-worshippers, on the west coast of the Caspian Sea, sixteen 
miles northeast of Bakoo, on the extremity of the peninsula of 
Abasharon ; it was an inclosed square building having at each 
angle a hollow column, higher than the surrounding buildings, 
from the top of which issued a bright flame, which was probably 
sustained by the gas from the petroleum spring in the vicinity. 
There was a constant succession of pilgrims who came from differ- 
ent parts of India and relieved each other every two or three years 
in watching the holy flame, but the high priest remained during 
life* 

Lieutenant Wood, of the East India Navy, on his march from 
Khyber Pass to Dhaka on the Kabul River, in 1837, saw on the 
summit of a small hill one of those " topes " or mounds of ma- 
sonry which are so numerous in Afghanistan, and he says : 
" These solid structures which have so long defied time, and which 
the apathy of the natives left undisturbed, have at last fallen be- 
fore the enlightened curiosity of Europeans ; and as the entire 
deposits of many, consisting of coins and relics, are already in 
the East India Company's Museum and other cabinets of the 
learned, we hope soon to hear that modern research has, by de- 
ciphering their inscriptions, dispelled all doubt of the purposes for 
which these singular piles were originally erected. "f 

In the year 1863 the Hungarian traveller, Arminius Vambery, 
went from Gomush-tepe encampment, on the east coast of the Cas- 
pian Sea, to Kiva. From Kara-tepe, on the west side, he had 
gained a view of the Caspian. Here I wish to call your attention 
to the word tepe, which has been mentioned in connection with the 
mounds on the plains of Troy, the mounds on the plain of Urmia 
on the hills of Afghanistan beyond the Hindu Kosh, and on the 
plains of Koordistan beyond the Caspian, and to Tepe Kirman, 
the name of a mountain in the Crimea. Kara-tepe signifies Black 
Hill. I know not what Gomush means, but its termination tepe ex- 
presses a hill or mountain. It is thus seen how extensive is the 
use of the word Tepe in the sense of hill, hillock, or mountain. 
But what is still more remakable, this word Tepe is in many Mexi- 

* Keppel. 

f "Journey to the Sources of the Oxus," by Lieut. John Wood, E. I. Co., 
Navy. 



CHAP. V.] 



OF AMERICA. 



37 



can compound words, as Tehuantepec ; Ometepec, the name of a 
district ; Tepeaca, a town on a mountain plain ; Cetlaltepec, the 
mountain Orizama ; Chepultepec, Quiotepec, Popocatepec, etc. 
Tepe is also the name of a lofty, precipitous and narrow rock 
known as the Devil's Hill, situated in the vicinity of the Missouri 
River. It is also a name given by some of the western Indians to 
their tent, perhaps on account of its conical shape. 

From the encampment of Gomush-tepe, the caravan in which 
Vambery travelled followed a path northeasterly, departing more 
and more from the sea-shore, in the direction of two great mounds, 
of which one bears the name Karesafi, and the other that of Alton- 
Tokmak. He says : " Besides these mounds are discovered, here 
and there, numerous joszka (Turcoman barrows) ; with these ex- 
ceptions the district is one boundless flat. Scarcely a quarter of a 
league from Gomush-tepe we found ourselves proceeding through 
splendid meadows." 

Speaking of the Turkoman customs, Vambery says : " When 
perishes a chief of distinction, one who has well earned the title 
of bator (valiant), it is the practice to throw up over his grave a 
joszka (large mound) ; to this every good Turkoman is bound to 
contribute at least seven shovelsful of earth, so that these eleva- 
tions often have the circumference of sixty feet and a height of 
from twenty to thirty feet. In the great plains, these mounds are 
very conspicuous objects. The Turkoman knows them all by their 
names, that is to say, by the names of those that rest below. This 
custom existed among the ancient Huns, and is in use in Hungary 
even at the present day. In Kashan, Upper Hungary, a mound 
was raised a few years ago in memory of Count St. Szechenyi." 

P. V. N. Myers, in his work, u Lost Empires," says : u Large ar- 
tificial mounds are seen throughout Syria and Mesopotamia, 
twenty within the range of vision in Mesopotamia. 

" From Akterin we journeyed for three days towards the Eu- 
phrates. For the first day the country was dotted with villages 
and artificial tells — mounds. 

" From Aleppo to the Euphrates, five days' journey, the two 
days' march from Urfa, all round, the plain was dotted with arti- 
ficial tells. 

" The Assyrians, the Babylonians and Persians, erected their pal- 
aces upon lofty artificial terraces or platforms; the Cyclopean ma- 
sonry of the Persepolis platforms, which supported the palaces of 
the Persian kings, is to-day one of the marvels of the antiquarian 
world ; the vast dimensions of the Babylonian mounds almost ex- 
ceed belief. The mound of Kayunjik, that was crowned with 



38 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. V. 



Ninivite palaces, equally astonishes the beholder by its gigantic 
proportions. From its enormous mass of bricks and earth could 
be constructed four pyramids equal to that of Cheops. 

" At Samarah the Romans raised a huge tumulus over the re- 
mains of the Emperor Julian, which to this day stands on the 
banks of the river — Euphrates — amid the ruins of ancient cities." 
After descending the Euphrates, speaking of the tell at Samarah, 
Myers says : " Far over the plain to the north rose the artificial 
tell of Alijh, probably the ancient tumulus raised by the Roman 
army, a.d. 363, in commemoration of the burning of the body of 
their general, the Emperor Julian, who died here." 

Ammianus Marcellinus, who bore a share in the campaigns 
which Julian made against the Persians, wrote a history of his 
times, and lived nearly to the end of the fourth century. In his 
history he says : " Procopius was sent forward with the remains 
of Julian to bury them in the suburbs of Tarsus, according to 
his directions when alive. He departed, I say, to fulfil this 
commission, and as soon as the body was buried he quitted Tar- 
sus." 

In another place he says: "The emperor (Jovian) remained a 
short time at Antioch, distracted by many important cases, but 
desirous above all to proceed. And so, sparing neither man nor 
beast, he started from that city in the depth of winter, and made 
his entrance into Tarsus, a noble city of Cilicia. Being in exces- 
sive haste to depart from thence, he ordered decorations for the 
tomb of Julian, which was placed in the suburb, on the road lead- 
ing to the defiles of Mount Taurus, though a sound judgment 
would have decided that the ashes of such a prince ought rather 
to be placed where they might be washed by the Tiber as it passes 
through the Eternal City and winds round the monuments of the 
ancient gods." 

It is plain that this great tumulus was not erected over the re- 
mains of Julian. It probably is that of Gordianus, to whom " a 
monument was raised by the soldiers, with an inscription, at a 
place called Zaitha, twenty miles east of the town of Circesium, 
not far from the left bank of the Euphrates." — Anthon. 

Gordian was killed on the farthest border of Persia, in the place 
where his tomb was still to be seen in the year 363, beyond the 
Euphrates and the Aboras, between the cities of Cercusa, which 
stood near the conflux of those two rivers, and that of the Dura, 
which stands very near the latter, and is about twenty miles dis- 
tant from the former river. The place was called Zantha or 
Zaithe. There the soldiers erected to the memory of the deceased 



CHAP. VI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



•39 



emperor a stately tomb, with an epitaph in the Greek, Latin, Per- 
sian, Hebrew and Egyptian tongues. 

This last description conforms with the locality where Myers 
saw this great tumulus. As Philip, who is said to have destroyed 
this monument, was killed a.d. 249, and the monument was still 
to be seen in the year 363, it is evident that he did not destroy it. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A Siberian Tumulus and Its Contents— The Tumuli of Bouchtarma— Tumuli in 
Chinese Tartary — The Tumuli in the Kegion of the Lepsou — Marco 
Polo's Account of the Burial of the Grand Khans — The Great Plain of 
Central Asia — Two Remarkable Tombs — The Kegion of the Karatau — An 
Immense Ancient Earthwork and Tumuli on the Lepsou — Grand Mountain 
Scenery of the Karatau and the Alatau — Fort Kopal — Huge Blocks of Stone 
on the Kora — A Remarkable Stone Tumulus— The Mineral Spring and 
Baths at Arasan — The Pass in Karatau — The Kerghis Eange — Large 
Tumuli — Tumuli Covering an Area One Mile by Four. 

Tumuli are numerous even in Siberia. A Siberian barrow was 
found to contain three contiguous chambers of unhewn stone. 
In the central chamber lay the skeleton of an ancient chief, with 
his sword, his spear and bow, and a quiver full of arrows. The 
skeleton reclined upon a sheet of pure gold extending the whole 
length of the body, which had been wrapped in a mantle em- 
broidered with gold and studded with precious stones. Over it 
was extended another sheet of pure gold. In a smaller chamber 
at the chief's head lay the skeleton of a woman, richly attired, 
extended on a sheet of pure gold, and similarly covered with a 
sheet of the same metal. A golden chain adorned her neck, and 
her arms were encircled with bracelets of pure gold. In a third 
chamber, at the chief's feet, lay the skeleton of his favorite horse, 
with saddle, bridle and stirrups. 

Thomas Witlam Atkinson, explorer and artist, in the seven 
years succeeding that of 1847 visited the region of country ex- 
tending from Kokan, on the west, to the eastern end of the Baikal, 
and as far north as the Chinese town, Tchin-si, including the 
immense chain Syan-shan, and a large portion of the western part 
of Gobi. 

In his book entitled " Exploration and Adventure in Siberia," 
he says : " My first view of the Irtisch was from some high ground, 
when I beheld the river winding its course through the valley. 



40 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VI. 



Near this place — ' Bouchtarma ' — are many large tumuli. The 
steppe or valley around Bouchtarma is of considerable extent. 
On the north side of the town there is a conical mound quite 
peculiar in its form and exceedingly picturesque, and in the 
neighborhood are many ancient tumuli. Some have been opened, 
when gold and warlike implements were found in them. I have 
in my possession a part of a copper knife or dagger dug out of 
one of these mounds. When it was discovered the Cossacks 
thought it was gold and cut it in two. This instrument must 
have been made at a very early period. A little below the mouth 
of Bouchtarma commences the finest scenery on the Irtisch." 

In Chinese Tartary, within three hours' ride of Tchin-si, he saw 
a large tumulus, around which were many smaller ones, and he 
says : " Night brought us to the Tarbogati, along which we must 
continue our journey. Pursuing about ten versts to the north of 
Tchoubachack, we passed the Chinese pickets about noon on the 
second day, and reached a rocky valley just as the sun was setting 
behind a large barrow. It is about one hundred and fifty feet 
high, steep and regular in its form. I ascended to the top, and 
found the tomb of a Kerghis sultan, with many of those of his 
followers around him. This tumulus has been thrown up by a 
people of whom we have no trace, and in this part of Asia such 
ancient works are numerous." At another place he had seen the 
summit of a hill studded with them, and some of great antiquity. 

Speaking of this same region he says : " There are seven streams 
running from the Alatou down the steppe, and three find their 
way into the Lake Tengiz ; the others are lost in the sands of the 
steppe, on which they form extensive and dangerous marshes. 
There are many and some very large tombs scattered over the 
steppe, built at different periods, and by different races. The 
great tumuli are the most ancient. One of these was composed of 
stones ; it is a circle of three hundred and sixty-four feet in diame- 
ter, forming a dome-like mound, thirty-three feet high. The 
stones have been rounded in the Lepsou, and were brought from 
that river, which runs through the valley, about eight versts dis- 
tant. None exceed twelve inches in diameter, but most of them 
are smaller. To whom this tomb belongs the Kerghis have not 
even a tradition ; they attribute all such works to demons, and 
say their master, Shaitan (Satan, the Devil), has been the chief 
director. Another kind of tomb of more recent date is circular 
in its plan, twenty-five feet in diameter, with walls of stone four 
feet thick, carried up to the height of fifty feet, taking the form of 
a blast-furnace, with an aperture at the top and an opening on the 



i 



CHAP. VI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



41 



side two feet square and four feet from the ground. Through this 
I obtained access to the interior, where I found two graves covered 
with large blocks of stone, proving beyond all doubt that the 
superstructure had been erected over them. The Kerghis assured 
me that these were built by the people who inhabited the country 
before the Kalmucks. The third kind, which they say were built 
by Timour Khan and his race, are of sun-burnt bricks, and in de- 
sign possess a Mohammedan character ; even now some of these 
are in excellent preservation."* 

Marco Polo says: "It has been the invariable custom, that all 
the Grand Khans and chiefs of the race of Ghengis Khan should 
be carried for interment to certain lofty mountains name Altai, 
and in whatever place they may happen to die, although it should 
be at the distance of a hundred days' journey, they are neverthe- 
less conveyed thither. It is likewise the custom, during the 
progress of removing the bodies of these princes, for those who 
form the escort to sacrifice such persons as they chance to meet on 
the road, saying to them, ' Depart for the next world, and there 
attend upon your deceased master,' being impressed with the 
belief that all whom they thus slay do actually become his ser- 
vants in the next life. They do the same also in respect to horses, 
killing the best of the stud, in order that he may have the use of 
them. When the corps of Mangu was transported to this moun- 
tain, the horsemen who accompanied it, having this blind and 
horrible persuasion, slew upwards of twenty thousand persons 
who fell in their way." 

The Chinese annals are not without instances of the practice of 
immolation at funerals. As late as the year 1661 the Tartar Em- 
peror Shun-chi commanded a human sacrifice upon the death of 
his favorite mistress. 

In the account of the conquest of China by the Mantchou Tar- 
tars we are told that the Mantchou king, Tien-ruing, invading 
China to avenge the murder of his father, swore. that — in allusion 
to the customs of the Tartars — he would celebrate the funeral of 
the murdered king by the slaughter of two hundred thousand 
Chinese.f 

The vast plain of Central Asia is more than two thousand 
miles in length and one thousand two hundred in breadth, and 
over this space are scattered at intervals tumuli, some of which 
are held in great veneration by the Kerghis. Atkinson traversed 

* " Exploration and Adventures in Siberia," Thomas Witlam Atkinson, 1865. 
f Note to Marsden's "Marco Polo." 



42 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. VI. 



a great part of this vast desert, and in his " Journey to the 
Amoor " he says : 

" The river Aj^agus, for a short distance, led us among low hills. 
In this direction (southerly) Ayagus seemed to stand on the verge 
of a desert that could not afford a mouthful of food to man or 
beast. Having ridden more than three hours over these barren 
hills, we reached a plain covered with good pastures. We con- 
tinued our ride over the plain through great herds of cattle, and 
in little more than two hours reached our destination. 

" The next morning, after riding about an hour, we reached the 
summit of a hill whence the vast Asiatic plain lay stretched out 
around me, extending more than two thousand miles in length, 
from the Caspian on the west to the Bartuck Mountains on the east. 
Its breadth is about one thousand two hundred miles, and over this 
enormous space the nomadic tribes wander with their flocks and 
herds. At some ten miles distance was a broad track of country 
covered with a substance of dazzling whiteness. Beyond was a 
lake some twenty-five or thirty miles in length and about fifteen 
miles in breadth, the shore quite flat, with a belt of reeds about 
two miles in width extending around it, To the east end, at a 
great distance, the purple peaks of the Tarbagatai were visible, 
but on the whole space within the range of vision not a single 
abode for man could be seen. 

" From this spot we proceeded toward the southeast, and a ride 
of three hours carried us across a broad valley and to the eastern 
end of another ridge. There are several ancient tombs which are 
held in great veneration by the Kirghis. Two of these tombs are 
alike, both in form and dimensions. They are circular in the 
plan and conical, or, more properly, an elongated dome, with an 
aperture on the top. From the ground to the apex of the dome 
the height is about fifty-five feet; on the south side, and about 
eight feet from the ground, there is an opening about four feet 
square, and higher up in the dome there is another about two feet 
square. The interior diameter is twenty-one feet. The walls are 
four feet thick, and built of stone. In the centre of the tomb are 
two graves nine feet long and three feet six inches wide, and on 
each side of these are three other graves six feet long. Around this 
spot are several smaller tombs and numerous mounds of earth." 
These tombs are so much like a particular one previouly described, 
having the same form and almost the same size, and built of 
the same material, that probably they are identical ; if so, the 
two descriptions help to give a better idea of them. "Almost 
immediately after leaving the tombs we got into a morass, which 



CHAP. VI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



43 



was probably the bed of a shallow lake from which the water had 
evaporated, leaving incrustations of salt on the grass and mud. 
Not far from this place we reached a part of the steppe covered 
with efflorescent salt, which is exceedingly bitter. Although we 
proceeded at a rapid pace, we were more than two hours in crossing 
this crystallized spot. We then entered on a sterile steppe covered 
with sand and pebbles. 

" We were now on a level plain, but no pastures could be seen. 
Hour after hour passed with the same monotony around us. 
We had been nine hours on horseback. Having gone a few miles, 
the horses scented the pastures. In something more than an hour 
we perceived that the green was a belt of reeds extending for 
many miles. We tried to cross the swamp, but found this im- 
possible, as the reeds were ten feet high and so thick that the 
horses could not force a passage. On reaching the southern end 
of the reedy border we perceived a Kirghis, whom we desired to 
lead us to the aoul. He complied, and in about half an hour we 
were greeted by the barking of dogs as we rode up to the aoul. 
Night, however, had set in, and nothing could be seen but a few 
yourts around us. These were located in the pastures of a nu- 
merous tribe occupying a region to the west of the Ala-kool. The 
aoul of the chief was at the distance of a five hours' ride to the 
eastward. 

" The next point of interest to me was the region of Karatau, 
which bounds the Kirghis steppe to the south. Here were the 
pastures of the Great Horde, and in one of the valleys Russia was 
just commencing a fort. A ride of ten days after leaving Ayagus 
brought me to the river Bean, the boundary between the pastures 
of the Great and Middle Hordes. Arid steppes were frequently 
crossed ; the only patches of green were the salsola bordering the 
numerous salt lakes. On approaching the mountains the country 
becomes more fertile, and affords good pasture for vast herds of 
cattle. Wherever there is moisture, grass is abundant. 

" The ancient inhabitants of this region rendered it extremely 
productive. The numerous canals that still exist show their en- 
gineering skill and the extent of the irrigation it produced. In 
some of the channels the water yet runs, and where it overflows, 
the sterile soil is covered with a luxuriant carpet of vegetation. 
There is abundant proof that it has once been densely inhabited. 
The vast number of tumuli scattered over the plain, the extensive 
earthworks, which have been either cities or strongholds, afford 
convincing evidence that a great people were once located here. 

" One of their ancient works on the Lepsou, near its outlet from 



44 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VI. 



the Karatau, is a parallelogram about seven hundred yards in 
length and three hundred in breadth. The earth-walls are now 
about twelve feet high, and have been considerably higher ; their 
thickness is about sixteen feet at the bottom and nine feet at the top. 
This enclosure was entered by four gates, one being in the centre 
of each side ; but the eastern end has been partly destroyed by 
the river, which is gradually cutting down the bank. Half a mile 
to the north and south are numerous mounds, and about a mile 
from the western end there is a large tumulus, about one hundred 
and fifty feet in diameter and fifty feet high. The people who 
produced them were a very different race from the present occu- 
pants of the country, and had made an extraordinary advance in 
agriculture and mining. In one of the small mountain-ridges on 
my route I found a fine specimen of malachite, and came upon 
the remains of ancient mines, most probably worked at a period 
long before those of Siberia were discovered by the Chutes, who 
left many of their flint instruments in the depths of the Altai. 

"As we approached the Karatau from the northeast, the moun- 
tains were seen rising abruptly from the plain — some to the height 
of nearly seven thousand feet. After a long day on horseback we 
were glad to rest in the aoul of some herdsmen belonging to a 
chief, who gave us a welcome reception. 

" In the morning I discovered that the habitation was about ten 
miles from the foot of Karatau, near its western end, where it de- 
scends on to the great plain, along which it runs, in low hills, to 
a considerable distance. Here I obtained horses and men to take 
me over the mountains into the valley lying between the Karatau 
and the Alatau. At length we reached a round hill near the 
middle of the valley, from which we had a splendid view, looking 
to the eastward. On the north was the Karatau, on the south 
the Alatau. Many of the highest crests rise far into the region 
of eternal snow. Looking along this chain, the snowy peaks ap- 
peared to vanish in endless perspective, till the eye rested upon a 
stupendous mountain mass near the sources of the Acsou and 
Sarcand. 

"Having examined the country, I hastened forward, passing sev- 
eral large tumuli [5], while many more were scattered over the 
valley. Just at dark we reached a group of yourts, to the great 
astonishment of the Cossack inhabitants. Their officers, however, 
received me kindly and gave me a hospitable welcome. I had now 
reached Kopal, the most southerly fort Russia has planted in 
Chinese Tartary [6]. This military post is situated about 43° lat. 
N. and 82° long. E., and is only three days' journey from Kulja, 




Kopal, and Tumuli. 



CHAP. VI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



45 



a large Chinese town containing about forty thousand inhabitants. 
The fort is in the region belonging to the Great Horde of Kirghis, 
and is significant of the fate which awaits these warlike tribes. 

"Four years before my arrival a battery of artillery, consisting of 
six guns and one hundred men, had been sent into the Alatau, and 
the officer in command had taken up a position in a pass about eight 
miles to the southward of the site of the new fort. From Ayagus 
to their camp is a journey of eighteen days. The fort is placed 
on a rising ground about four hundred yards to the east of the 
river Kopal, which flows through the valley between the Alatau 
and Karatau. A vast number of tumuli are scattered over the 
plain, and some are of large dimensions, proving that the region 
has once been densely populated, or else it has been a vast ceme- 
tery, in which, apparently, a nation has been interred. 

"Having obtained valuable information from my friends, I deter- 
mined to cross the Alatau and visit the upper valleys of the 
Actau. Leaving our friends at the fort, we rode to the gorge where 
the artillery had encamped. Our way was up the ravine for 
nearly two miles, and then we ascended to the mountain-slope. 
In about two hours we reached a deep, rocky, well-wooded glen, 
running nearly east and west, that we had to cross. On emerging 
from the ravine our course was directly south and up toward a 
ridge. An hour's ride brought us to the summit. Beyond were 
seen the white summits of the Actau. We lost no time in cross- 
ing to some lofty- crags, near the base of which a great gap was 
formed in the ridge. On reaching this we passed round the base 
of the peaks, and saw the deep, narrow valley of the Kora lying 
beneath. As we looked down into the depth, probably five 
thousand feet below us, the river appeared like a band of frosted 
silver. 

"I arrived at a part of the valley where the Kora makes a bend 
towards the cliffs on the north, leaving a space of about two hun- 
dred yards in width between the base of the rocks and the river. 
As I approached this spot, I was almost inclined to belieye that 
the works of the giants were before me, for five enormous stones 
were standing isolated and on end, the first sight of which gave 
me the idea that their disposition was not accidental, and that a 
master-mind had superintended their erection, the group being in 
perfect keeping with the scene around. The height of one of 
these blocks above the ground was seventy-six feet, and it 
measured twenty-four feet on one side and nineteen feet on the 
other. It stood seventy-three paces from the base of the cliffs, 
and was about eight feet out of the perpendicular, inclining 



46 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. VI. 



toward the river. The remaining four blocks varied from forty- 
five to fifty feet in height, one being fifteen feet square, and the 
rest somewhat less. Two of these stood upright; the others were 
leaning in different directions, one of them so far that it had 
nearly lost its equilibrium. 

" A sixth mass of still larger dimensions was lying half-buried 
in the ground. On this some picta-trees had taken root, and were 
growing luxuriantly. About two hundred yards to the eastward 
three other blocks were lying.* Not far from there stood a pile of 
stones, undoubtedly the work of man, as a great quantity of quartz 
blocks had been used, with other materials, in its construction. It 
was circular, forty-two feet in diameter and twenty-eight feet high, 
shaped like a dome. A circle of quartz blocks had been formed 
on the ground, inclosing a space ten feet wide all round the tomb. 
Finding such a tumulus in this valley surprised me greatly. It 
could not have been the grave of a chief of the present race, but 
was as ancient as those I had found on the steppe." 

From the river Kora Atkinson returned to Kopal. He says : 

" On leaving Kopal I turned my steps to the eastward. A party 
of Cossack officers with their wives accompanied me to the Ara- 
san, our first night's encampment. From the fortress our way 
was towards Byan-ja-rouk, a sacred mountain with the Kirghis, 
over which I had watched the sun rise almost daily for the past 
five months. Though the steppes had long been covered with a 
carpet of grass and flowers, doubts were entertained of my being 
able to cross the Karatau and descend to the plain beyond. My 
object in attempting this was to meet the tribes and join them 
on their march to the summer pastures in the high valleys of the 
Alatau, in Chinese Tartary. 

" After taking leave of our Cossack friends we mounted our 
horses and departed. A ride of little more than an hour's dura- 
tion carried us beyond the region of tombs and on to a part of 
the steppe composed of bare granite. In some places huge 

* The dimensions of these upright rocks may excite incredulity in persons of 
the present time, but in the walls of the Temple of the Sun, at Balbec, there are 
three masses of rock almost as large as those in the valley of the Kora. The 
dimensions of the rocks at Balbec are : Fifty -eight feet seven inches, fifty-eight 
feet eleven inches, and fifty-eight feet, each twelve feet thick ; and a fourth remains 
in the quarry from whence the others were taken. It is hewn on three sides ; 
it is fifty-nine feet two inches long, twelve feet ten inches broad, and thirteen 
feet three inches thick. Some modern travellers make these stones greater. 
All these stones are of white granite. There is a quarry of this kind of stone 
under the whole city and in the adjacent mountain, where the unmoved block 
still remains "as a defiance to posterity to move it." 



CHAP. VI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



47 



masses were thrown up, extending in a southeast direction for ten 
miles. Beyond was a grassy plain running up to the foot of the 
north side of Byan-ja-rouk, and in the distance were several groups 
of ancient tombs — the burial-place of a race of whom the Kerghis 
have no tradition. Not far from one of these, smoke rising indi- 
cated the place of our encampment, and a sharp gallop of about 
eight miles brought us to it. We were now at "Arasan," a hot 
mineral spring having a temperature of 29° Reaumer, both in 
winter and summer. A large bath has been formed of rough 
stone walls, twenty-three feet long, eight feet wide, and four feet 
six inches deep, and the spring is very strong, giving a column of 
water three inches in diameter. It has been resorted to for many 
centuries by Kalmucks, Tartars, Chinese and Kirghis. 

" When I looked out in the morning the sun was throwing his 
rays over Byan-ja-rouk. After the morning repast my friends, 
except three, returned to their homes. The officer of artillery, 
with two of his men, rode with me to the pass in the Karatau, 
where we dined, and then separated. 

" A ride of half an hour brought us into the rugged ravine, with 
its walls in some places rising one thousand feet above us ; in other 
parts it opened into an amphitheatre. We were three hours rid- 
ing from this place to the top of the pass, whence we had a view 
over the steppe, that stretched out like a sea beneath us. In one 
direction smoke was seen, although at a great distance. We were 
now about five thousand feet above the steppe, and to the east 
mountains rose abruptly two thousand feet higher. The descent 
occupied four hours. After leaving the gorge and reaching the 
crest of a low hill we beheld a few miles to the east a Kirghis en- 
campment. On reaching it we learned that it was an advanced 
party on their way to the Alatau, and that they had only just 
arrived. 

" This tribe had been more than two months on their march from 
the shores of the Balkash, the winter resort of all the Kirghis of 
this region. Theirs is a life of constant migration between the 
higher valleys of the Alatau and the steppe around the Balkash. 

" At daybreak the following morning we left the aoul. After 
riding about two hours we came upon a great number of ancient 
tombs, many only small mounds of earth, varying from fifteen to 
twenty feet in diameter and ten feet high. These were scattered 
far over the plain. About a mile farther I found others of much 
larger dimensions, one one hundred and twenty feet in diameter 
and thirty -seven feet high, with a shallow ditch twelve feet wide 
and four feet deep running round its base. One hundred feet from 



48 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VII. 



the edge of the ditch was a circle of stones two feet high, and ten 
feet from this was another of the same height. Directly facing 
the east was an entrance twelve feet wide, having an avenue of the 
same width, formed of similar stones, extending eastward one 
hundred yards. 

" Having ridden my horse to the summit of the tumulus, I saw 
three others to the north, apparently of the same dimensions. 
One of them was about a mile distant, another about two miles, 
and the third still farther in a northwesterly direction. To the 
south I observed a still larger tumulus not far away. The whole 
intervening space was covered with smaller mounds ex tending- 
over an area nearly four miles in length by one mile in breadth. 

" Here was a place for reflection, and for much curious specula- 
tion as to what nation or race occupied these numberless mounds. 
They have passed away without leaving a single record, and it is 
impossible to identify them or date their cemeteries. Most proba- 
bly they were raised by the earliest inhabitants of these vast re- 
gions, which, we are led to believe, was the cradle of the human 
race." 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Tumuli of Europe — Human Sacrifices — The Burial Laws of Odin — The 
Irish Tumuli — The Tumulus at New Grange — The Tumulus of Thyre Dane- 
bod -The Skip's Plunger, or Ship's Tumulus— The Buried Ship of Gokstad, 
Norway — Tumuli of Britain — The Ages of Celtic Tumuli — Tumuli of Can- 
terbury, of Cracow, Poland — The Tumulus of Kosiusko. 

Having mentioned many mounds in Asia where, in several 
countries, they are termed Tepe, I will now describe some of those 
of Western Europe which, in several respects, much resemble 
those already mentioned, and are there called barrows and cairns. 
The similarity of the ancient funeral rites of the early inhabitants 
of Asia and Europe, and the similarity of the contents of the 
tumuli of each of these continents, appear to indicate that the 
founders of these monuments were actuated by a similar faith and 
motive in their erection. 

The barbarous custom of sacrificing human beings to their dei- 
ties, and to the manes of distinguished warriors, which character- 
ized the inhabitants of remote antiquity, appears to have descended 
to the time of the Trojan war. The custom of interring with the 
dead their arms, their jewelry, and sometimes their horses and ser- 



CHAP. VII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



49 



vants, is traced to the mythology of the Northern Asiatic nations, 
which taught them to believe that they should make an appear- 
ance in another world corresponding to the ornaments and attend- 
ants deposited in their tomb, and this superstition has descended 
through many ages. 

There are barrows which include a chamber or chambers where 
the tenant was surrounded with all the prized provisions of his 
previous life. Sometimes, instead of a chamber formed above 
ground, the barrow covered a pit excavated under the original sur- 
face, in which the interments had been made. 

It was a law of Odin that large barrows should be raised to per- 
petuate the memory of celebrated chiefs ; these are composed of 
stone and earth, and are formed with great labor and some art. 

In the fiery age, which was the first among the Northerns, the 
body was ordered by Odin to be burnt with its ornaments, and the 
ashes to be collected in an urn and laid in a grave. In the age of 
hillocks, being the second, the body, untouched by fire, was de- 
posited in a cave or sepulchre under a barrow, and this mode was 
practiced until the age of Christianity. 

In Ireland, barrows are- very numerous ; the round barrow or 
chambered cairn prevailed from the earliest pagan period till the 
introduction of Christianity. The Irish barrows appear in groups 
in certain localities which seem to have been the royal cemeteries 
of the tribal confederacies, whereof eight are enumerated in an 
ancient Celtic manuscript on Pagan Cemeteries. The best known 
of these is the burial-place of the kings of Tara. It is on the 
banks of the Boyne, above Drogheda, and consists of a group of 
the largest cairns in Ireland. At New Grange, in the county of 
Meath, is a mound, the altitude of which, from the horizontal floor 
of the cave, is about seventy feet, the circumference at the top is 
three hundred feet, and the base covers two acres of land. It is 
founded on an astonishing collection of stones, and covered with 
gravel and earth. Around its base are the remains of a circle of 
large standing stones. About the year 1699 Mr. Campbell, who 
resided in the village of New Grange, observing stones under the 
sod, carried many of them away, and at length arrived at a broad, 
flat stone that covered the mouth of the gallery. At the entrance, 
this gallery is three feet wide and two feet high ; at thirteen feet 
from the entrance it is but two feet two inches wide ; the length 
of the gallery, from its mouth to the beginning of the dome, is 
sixty-two feet ; from thence to the upper part of the dome, eleven 
feet six inches ; the whole length being seventy-three feet and a half. 
The dome or cave with the long gallery exhibits the exact figure 

4 



50 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[chap. VII. 



of a cross, the length between the arms of which is twenty feet. 
The dome forms an octagon twenty feet high, with an area of about 
seventeen feet. It is composed of long flat stones, the upper pro- 
jecting a little over the lower, and closed in and capped with a 
flat flag. There are two large oval rock-basins in this cave, one in 
each arm of the cross ; from which, and the cruciform shape of the 
structure, it is supposed to be the work of semi-Christian Ostmen 
in the ninth century. General Vallance, however, and other anti- 
quarians, consider this cave at New Grange to have been " antrum 
Mithras" or a cave for the worship of the Sun, introduced by the 
Perso- Scythian colony which they suppose to have come to Ire- 
land from Spain, and to have established the customs of the eastern 
nations. The mode of burial and the species of sepulchral monu- 
ment at New Grange may be traced through Denmark. Sweden, 
Russia, Poland and the steppes of Tartary* 

Sometimes chambers are found formed of wood instead of stones. 
One of the latest examples of the great timbered chamber barrows 
is that of Jellenge, in Jutland, known as the barrow of Thyre 
Danebod, queen of King Gorm the Old. who died about the middle 
of the tenth century. It is a mound about two hundred feet in di- 
ameter and over fifty feet in height, containing a chamber twenty- 
three feet in length, eight feet wide, and five feet high, formed of 
massive slabs of oak. King Harold, son and successor of Gorm 
the Old. followed the pagan custom by erecting a chambered tumu- 
lus over the remains of his father, on the summit of which was 
placed a rude stone pillar bearing on one side the memorial in- 
scription in Runes. The king's " hows " at Upsal, in Sweden, rival 
those of Jelling in size and height. In the chamber of one of 
them, which was opened in 1829, was found an urn full of calcined 
bones, and along with them some ornaments of gold, showing the 
workmanship of the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era. 
Along with the calcined human bones were bones of animals, 
those of horses and dogs being distinguished. 

"A remarkable form of tumulus frequent in Sweden, and occa- 
sionally seen in Scotland, consists of an oblong mound, larger than 
the primitive barrow, and terminated at both ends in a point, 
whence it had been called skip selunger, or ship barrow. Scandi- 
navian antiquarians have come to the conclusion that the bodies 
of the warriors of the sea were sometimes buried in their ships, 
whose form was represented in the earthwork raised over their 
ashes. This opinion has since been verified by the discovery of a 
Viking vessel thus entombed. 

* Governor Powell in the " Archeeologia." 



CHAP. VII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



51 



"The earliest information about ancient boat-building in Norway- 
is derived from the rude gravings in stone, called " helleristninger," 
which are supposed to have been executed during the period be- 
tween the birth of Christ and about a thousand years previously. 
In the old historic times, from about the eighth to the eleventh 
century after Christ, it is known, from ancient manuscripts, that a 
custom prevailed among Norsemen, throughout the later centuries 
of paganism in Scandinavia, of burying the remains of men of 
note with their ships. This mode of burial has proven of singular 
importance, as since, in excavating some of these mounds, ships 
from that remote period have been brought to light in a more or 
less perfect state of preservation, but nevertheless of the greatest 
interest and the highest value. Divers ship-tombs have been dis- 
covered, and the vessels found very considerable in size, ranging 
from boats to sea-going ships. In most cases the vessel appeared 
to have been hauled ashore, placed on an even keel, and the re- 
mains of the dead deposited in it, together with such articles as 
were to accompany the departed for his use in the next world, 
after which a mound of earth or stone was thrown up over the 
grave. Vessels of a smaller dimension have been found upturned 
over the body, and in other cases the ship and all appeared to 
have been burnt before the interment. Of the mounds excavated 
up to the present time it has been very exceptional when they 
consisted of a substance in which wood could be preserved for cen- 
turies ; and very little of the wood-work was found remaining, 
often, indeed, not more than enough to ascertain the size of the 
vessel. The only exceptions met with yet are two ship-tombs 
found in the south of Norway, where the interment had taken 
place in blue clay, which is well known for its excellent qualities 
as a preservative of wood.* One of the ship-tombs was discovered 
in 1867 in a barrow on the farmstead Haugen, in the parish of 
Tune, close to the river Glommen, near the Christiania fiord. The 
tomb contained a vessel with a keel over forty feet long. Unfortu- 
nately the upper part of the ship had gone entirely, owing to the 

* Five miles north of Natchez, in the State of Mississippi, are a number of 
dry bayous — deep cavities in the earth caused by the water flowing down the 
valleys. The caving first begins where the water enters a creek through culti- 
vated land, and then is continued to the head of the valley, when the caving 
ceases, as there is no longer sufficient water to cause it. Some of these bayous 
are twenty-five or thirty feet in depth, and at their bottom is a blue clay. The 
caving sometimes discloses the remains of mastodons, which, falling into this 
blue clay, are covered and colored by it, and thus preserved. There is beneath 
the surface of the earth at or near Detroit, in the State of Michigan, a similar 
clay. 



52 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. VII. 



blue clay covering only the bottom. Far more important was 
the discovery of the ship of which a copy was built and lately ex- 
hibited at the World's Fair at Chicago. It was found in 1880, at 
Gokstad, near a small watering-place called Sande fiord, situated 
on the western side of Christiania fiord, in a mound where, accord- 
ing to tradition, a king was buried with all his treasure. The ship 
was found to be in excellent preservation, and it was safely got out 
by the aid of the Antiquarian Society in Christiania, and after- 
wards acquired by the Christiania University, where it now lies 
for view as one of the finest specimens of antique curiosity in the 
world. Here at last the actual character of vessels belonging to 
the Viking period was brought to light, and though there may still 
be found in Norway some mounds near the coast containing ships, 
it is certain there will not be found any vessel which, in respect to 
model and workmanship, can outrival the Gokstad ship. This ship 
measured sixty-six feet in length on the keel, and from outside to 
outside, between fore and aft, seventy-eight feet; amidship it is 
sixteen and one-half feet broad, and at the same point four feet in 
depth from top of bulwark to keel."* 

In England the long barrow usually contains a single chamber, 
entered by a passage under the higher and wider end of the 
mound. In Denmark the chambers are at irregular intervals along 
the body of the mound, and have no passages leading into them. 
The long barrows of Great Britain are often from two hundred to 
four hundred feet in length, by sixty to eighty feet in width. The 
chambers are rudely but strongly built, with dome-shaped roofs, 
formed by overlapping the successive courses of the upper part of 
the side-walls. In Scandinavia, on the other hand, such dome-roofed 
chambers are unknown, and the construction of the chambers, as 
a rule, is megalithic, five or six monoliths supporting a capstone 
of enormous size. Such chambers, denuded of the covering mound, 
or over which no covering mound has been raised, are popularly 
known in England as " cromlechs," and in France as "dolmens." 

Barrows are numerous in the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset- 
shire, in England. They are also found in other counties. Corn- 
wall county was the Cassiterides or Tin Islands of the Phcenecians 
and Greeks. It was inhabited previous to the Roman conquest by 
the Carnubii, the Cimbri and the Damnoni. The language of its 
ancient people was a variety of the Celtic, akin to the Welsh, the 
Gaelic and the Breton. Ancient British antiquities of great va- 
riety, some of them Druidical. and many highly interesting, are 

* "Viking," by Alfred A. Holm. 



CHAP. VII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



53 



very numerous in this county. Among them are a great many 
barrows or conical hillocks. The height and dimensions of these 
barrows are various, from four to thirty feet high, and from fifteen 
to one hundred and thirty broad ; but they always bear a regular 
proportion in their form. Some have a, fossa or ditch around their 
circumference, others none ; some a small circle of stones at the 
top, others none ; some a circle of stones around the extreme edge 
of their base. 

Dr. Stephen Williams saw four of them opened by six tinners, 
who were employed on purpose by himself and another gentleman. 
He says, after they had opened three of the number, ' ; Though 
we had hitherto found no urn, yet, being persuaded by the unc- 
tuous black earth, the cylindrical pits in the centre of every one of 
the barrows, the artful position of the stones to cover and guard 
them, and the foreign earth, that these barrows were erected for 
sepulchres, we resolved to proceed farther.' 1 

Then he gives a particular description of the opening of the 
fourth, in which they found an urn carefully guarded by a great 
many stones placed artfully all around it. " This urn." he con- 
tinues, " is made of burnt or calcined earth, very hard, and very 
black on the inside ; it has four little ears, or handles ; its sides 
are not half an inch thick ; in it were seven quarts of burnt bones 
and ashes ; we could easily distinguish the bones, but so altered 
by fire as not to be known what part of the skeleton they com- 
posed. The urn will hold two gallons and more; its height is 
thirteen inches and a half ; its diameter at the mouth, eight ; at the 
middle, eleven ; and at the bottom, six and a half." 

In Scotland mounds of this kind are called Cairns, a name by 
which they are known also in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and some- 
times, too, in Cornwall. Pennant, in both his tours to Scotland, has 
taken notice of several cairns. *' In this country (Banff)," says 
he, " are several cairns or barrows, the places of interment of the 
ancient Caledonians, or of the Danes, for the method was com- 
mon to both nations." 

He mentions several of them that were opened, in one of which 
was found a stone coffin containing the complete skeleton of a hu- 
man body. In another, a coffin with a skeleton, also an urn ; in a 
third, the same; and in a fourth, a large ornamented urn, with 
three lesser ones, quite plain ; the largest was thirteen inches 
high. 

Very numerous are the barrows in the neighborhood of Stone- 
henge. We may readily count fifty at a time in sight from the 
same place, easily distinguishable. Generally they are upon ele- 



54 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. VII. 



vated grounds. In some are found only urns filled with bones, in 
others burnt bones without any sign of an urn. Most of them are 
surrounded with ditches.* 

A vast number of barrows of the Celtic period have been ex- 
plored in England. Excavations have shown that the remains 
deposited beneath tumuli were sometimes placed on the level 
ground, and as often were contained in a cist. Of upwards of 
twenty-five barrows explored by Mr. Sydenham, in Dorsetshire, 
the greater part were raised over cists excavated in the chalk. 
These were covered with a heap of broken flints, apparently frac- 
tured for the purpose ; then succeeded large, unbroken flints. 
Above these were successive layers of brown and black mould to 
the thickness of three feet, the exterior coating being a layer of 
large flints, two and a half feet in thickness. Among the flints in 
the inner cairn were found many fragments of charcoal, and the 
layers of brown and black mould were divided by a sprinkling of 
ashes. On the floor of the cist were two skeletons in a bent 
posture (their legs drawn up). Also on the floor of the cist was 
a plain interment of burnt bones, of which there was a considerable 
heap. In different places in this mound were found the skeletons, 
the number discovered being nine. There were also found several 
urns. In one of these was a quantity of burnt bones, among 
which were a few beads. A small, perforated cowrie-shell was 
likewise found. These shells are sometimes found in Anglo-Saxon 
tumuli. All these articles had been subject to the action of fire. 

The occasional finding of cists, beneath tumuli, entirely empty, 
and without the slightest traces of interment, has given rise to 
much speculation, but an attentive examination of the floor of 
the cist will satisfy the explorer that the remains have been 
entirely decomposed. This decomposition appears to depend 
not so much upon the nature of the soil as on the texture of the 
bones. Sometimes the teeth, and occasionally the teeth with the 
alveolar process, are all that remain. f 

The ages of Celtic tumuli have been surmised by the character 
of their contents. Thus, barrows containing no vestiges of pot- 
tery have been assigned to the earliest period. Those in which urns 
or implements of flint or stone are found are supposed to denote 
a second or improved stage in the slow march of civilization, while 
the barrows containing metal weapons and personal ornaments 

* Pamphlet, "Description of Stonehenge, " quoted in a note by Chevalier. 

t American archaeologists may profit by this, and seek not in, but beneath 
the mounds for relics ; and probably the bases of mounds on alluvial soil will be 
found several feet below the present surface. 



CHAP. VII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



55 



are given to a still later period. This classification appears to be 
based on a rational supposition, yet it is liable to some ob- 
jections. 

A large barrow about two miles southeast of Canterbury, Eng- 
land, was opened about four years since by Mr. Bell, who discovered 
in it five large urns. " Four of the five urns thus brought to light 
were precisely alike in form and size, but the fifth was much 
larger and slightly different in shape and ornaments, the former 
being eighteen inches in height and thirteen inches in diameter at 
the broadest part, and the latter not less than twenty-five inches in 
height and twenty-two in diameter. The material of which they 
were made was of the rudest description, consisting of half-baked 
clay, mixed with numerous fragments of silex, which crumbled 
at the touch, so that their removal entire was impossible. The 
urns were all found with their mouths downward, filled with 
ashes, charcoal and minute fragments of bones. The contents of 
the larger urn were perfectly dry, and portions of the bones were 
larger ; but those of the smaller ones were moist and of the con- 
sistency of paste. The mouths of the urns were closely stopped 
with unburnt clay. Not a vestige of any weapon, bead or other 
ornament could be discovered. The soil of which the barrow was 
formed was most excellent brick-earth, which appeared perfectly 
well-tempered and fit for immediate use without further prepara- 
tion, and contained not a single pebble larger than a bean. The 
urns were standing on nearly the same level as the surrounding 
ground, which, on digging into it, appeared not to have been dis- 
turbed."* 

Stephens, the celebrated American traveller, speaks of his visit 
to Cracow thus : " I walked on the old ramparts of Cracow. The 
city was formerly surrounded with regular fortifications, but its 
ancient walls have been transformed into boulevards, which com- 
mand an extensive view of all the surrounding country. On the 
opposite bank of the Vistula is a large tumulus of earth marking 
the grave of Cracus, the founder of the city. A little higher up 
is another mound, reverenced as the sepulchre of his daughter 
Wenda. About a mile from Cracow are the ruins of the palace of 
Lobzow, built by Casimir the Great, for a long time the favorite 
royal residence, and identified with a crowd of national recollec- 
tions ; and, until lately, a large mound of earth in the garden was 
reverenced as the grave of Esther, a beautiful Jewess, the idol of 
Casimir the Great. But my heart beat high as I turned to another 

* " Archgeologie," vol. xxx. The quotation above is abridged. 



56 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VIII. 



monument in the environs of Cracow — an immense mound of 
earth standing on an eminence, visible from every quarter, tower- 
ing almost into a mountain, and sacred to the memory of Kos- 
ciusco. I saw it from the ramparts, and with my eyes constantly 
fixed upon it, descended to the Vistula, followed its banks to a 
large convent, and then turned to the right direct for the mound. 
I walked to the foot of the hill and ascended to a broad table- 
land, from which the mound rises in a conical form from a base 
three hundred feet in diameter to a height of one hundred and 
seventy-five feet. 

" It was built of earth, sodded, and was erected in 1819 by the 
voluntary labor of the Polish people. A circular path winds 
around the mound. I ascended by this path to the top. It was 
covered with a thick carpet of grass, and reminded me of the tu- 
muli of the Grecian heroes on the plains of Troy." 

Poland abounds in prehistoric remains of the various stone, 
bronze and iron ages. The Bug and the Vistula valleys were natu- 
rally followed by the migratory tribes and traders passing from 
the Euxine to the Baltic. Pagan graves are very numerous, some 
of vast size, and certain artificial mounds in the Vistula basin 
dating from the neolithic period have a circuit of five hundred 
and seventy yards.* 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Stonehenge — Avebury — The Gaelic Monuments of France — Carnac. 
Stonehenge. 

Very little now remains of the fallen and standing ruins of the 
wonderful work of Stonehenge [7], but in the past and its preced- 
ing century, when visited by eminent archaeologists and architects, 
the remains of its fallen and standing ruins were so great that the} 7 
could form a very nearty correct idea of its construction. It is 
from a small pamphlet, containing abridged accounts of Stone- 
henge by these distinguished persons, that I have gathered the 
following in regard to this remarkable relic of remotest antiquity. 

Stonehenge is six miles north of Salisbury, and two directly 
west of Amesbury. The river Avon runs southward from Ames- 
bury to Salisbury, which towns are situated on this river. Stone- 



Elisee Beclus. 




Stonehenge. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



57 



henge is situated on one of the swells of Salisbury plain, in Wilt- 
shire county, England. The plain is an extensive tract of 
undulating chalk country, between Salisbury and Devizes, about 
twenty miles long from north to south, and about fourteen broad. 
Stonehenge stands not exactly upon the summit of the swell, but 
very nearly so, and for more than three-quarters of the circuit is 
approached by a very gentle ascent, so that the soil, which is chalk, 
is perfectly dry and hard, and water cannot stand anywhere here- 
about. 

The idea we conceive of the distances of time when this kind 
of work was made cannot be ill-founded if we consider that the 
oldest accounts of them we have in writing are from Britons. This 
is mentioned in some manuscripts of Ninnius,* before the Saxons 
and Danes came over to Britain ; and the oldest Britons speak of 
them only by tradition far above all memorial. They wondered 
at Stonehenge then, and went as far to seek about its founders, and 
the intent of it, as we now. 

" A building of such obscure origin and of so singular construc- 
tion has naturally attracted the attention of the learned, and nu- 
merous have been the publications respecting it. Conjectures have 
been equally various, and each author has penned his own. The 
revolution of ages frequently elucidates history, and brings many 
important facts to light ; but here all is darkness and uncertainty. 
We may admire, we may conjecture, but we are doomed to remain 
in ignorance and obscurity. "f 

From a manuscript of John Aubrey, written in the year 1665, 
it appears " That this ancient monument of Stonehenge was men- 
tioned by Caxton, in his 'Chronicles,' as the second wonder in 
Britain ; and that it was a part of the inheritance of the wife of 
Lord Ferrers, of Chantly, who was a daughter of Laurence Wash- 
ington, Esq.J By the neighborhood it was called Stonedge, i.e., 
stones set edgewise." 

* The most ancient writer who makes mention of Stonehenge is St. Ninian, a 
Briton of noble birth, who was educated at Kome, and there ordained a bishop. 
He died in 432 a. d. 

f Sir K. C. Hoar. 

X "The branch of the family to which our Washington belonged sprang from 
Laurence Washington, Esquire, of Gray's Inn, for some time Mayor of North- 
ampton. The manor of Garsden, in Wiltshire, was the residence of Sir Lau- 
rence Washington, second son of the above. Elizabeth, granddaughter of this 
Sir Laurence, married Robert Shirley, Earl Ferrers and Viscount of Farnworth." 
— Irving' s "Life of Washington." 

In the year 1741 "Admiral Vernon found himself at the head of the most 
formidable fleet that ever had been seen in this part (West Indies) of the world." 



58 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VIII. 



Stonehenge is a circular stone structure three hundred feet in 
circumference, and one hundred feet from the ditch, thirty feet 
wide, that surrounds it. It consists of four parts, separate and 
distinct : 1st. An outer circle of upright stones, on which horizontal 
stones, continued all around, formed an elevated circle parallel to 
the horizon. 2d. An inner circle of simply upright stones, parallel 
to the outer circle, and eight feet three inches from it. 3d. A hex- 
agon, fifty-two feet in its shortest diameter and a few more in its 
longest, formed of trilithons, and about thirteen feet from the inner 
circle. 4th. An ellipse of upright stones, concentric with the cir- 
cumference of the hexagon and three feet within it. 

The outer circle consisted of thirty uprights and thirty imposts, 
rude stones in about the same state as when taken from the quarry. 
Each upright had on its flattened top two tenons of the form of 
half an egg, about ten and a half inches in diameter, and on the 
external parts of its top a ridge or projection.* Each impost had 
two mortises corresponding with the tenons ; one mortise was 
fitted on the tenon of one upright and the other on the tenon of 
the next upright ; and thus the imposts, reaching from pillar to 
pillar, and their extremities resting and fitted together on the flat- 
tened top of the pillars, formed the elevated circle parallel to the 
horizon. 

The uprights or pillars of the outer circle vary in height, size 
and distance from each other. Those northward were fourteen feet 
high, while those southward were only thirteen, because the ground 
is higher on the south side; and this was nicely and accurately 
contrived by the ancient builders of it to keep the imposts on 
them to the same elevation. The height of the uprights on each 
side of the entrance is a little more than thirteen feet, the breadth 
of one seven feet and of the other six feet four inches; their thick- 
ness, three feet six inches ; the impost on them is about ten feet 
long, or a little more, two feet eight inches thick, and seven feet 
broad. The intervals between the uprights varied. They were 
about three feet, or sometimes nearly four, but the interval at the 

This fleet attacked Cartliagena and failed to capture it. "On the 8th of May 
the fleet sailed from this scene of misery and distress for the island of Ja- 
maica. ' ' 

It was in this attack on Cartliagena that three hundred sailors and two hun- 
dred soldiers, the soldiers commanded by Captains Murray and Washington, at- 
tacked and took the Bared era battery, which consisted of fifteen twenty -four 
pounders. The destruction of this battery was of the greatest service to the 
army. — " Military and Naval Memoirs," by Kobert Beatison, LL.D. 

* This ridge or projection, with the tenon, held the end of the impost in its 
place, and prevented it from sliding to either side. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



59 



entrance was rather wider than the rest; this interval was the 
northeast one. All the stones of the outer circle are a light-colored 
sandstone. 

The inner circle consisted of thirty perpendicular, rudely pyra- 
midal-formed stones, one foot and a half broad, one foot thick and 
six feet high, placed at unequal distances from each other. These 
stones were of a very dark color and very hard. 

The hexagon consisted of six trilithons at equal distances from 
each other ; the largest, at the southwestern extremity, and the 
smallest, at the northeastern, facing each other, and both in a dia- 
metrical line with the entrance to the temple. The trilithons rose 
one above the other, from the smallest to the greatest ; the nearest, 
on each side, to the smallest corresponding, and the same of the 
nearest, one on each side, to the largest. The length or height of 
the pillars of the largest trilithon was twenty-one feet six inches ; 
the size of the impost was probably larger than the one described 
below. The lengths of the pillars of the trilithons next to the 
largest were respectively twenty-two and twenty-three feet from 
end to end, including what had been in the ground, which part 
was of one, three feet, and of the other, three feet six inches ; the 
mean breadth of each pillar of this trilithon is seven feet nine inches, 
the thickness three feet. The impost, which was a perfect parallel- 
opiped, was sixteen feet long, four feet six inches broad, and two 
feet six inches thick, and weighed nearly seventy tons. The spaces 
between the pillars of each trilithon were twenty-one or twenty- 
two inches. The imposts and pillars of each trilithon were fitted 
together as the pillars and imposts of the outer circle ; but the im- 
posts not being continuous and connected, as those in the outer 
circle, the pillars of the trilithons had each only one tenon, whereas 
those of the outer circle had each two tenons ; besides, the ends 
of the imposts of the trilithons appear to have projected beyond 
the pillars. All the stones of the hexagon were a bright-colored 
sandstone, the same as that of the outer circle. 

The Ellipse consisted of nineteen upright granite stones, two feet 
six inches in breadth, one foot six inches thick, and varying in 
height in the order of the trilithons, from six to eight feet. They 
were somewhat pyramidal in form, like those of the inner circle, 
and tapering upwards. They were placed at about the central dis- 
tance from each other of four feet six inches. 

The Altar Stone was within the ellipse, about twelve feet from 
and in front of the greatest trilithon. It was sixteen feet long, 
four feet wide, and one foot eight inches thick. It was a black 
stone, different from and harder than the rest. 



60 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. VIII. 



The Ditch which surrounded Stonehenge has different dimen- 
sions given it by different writers. Some make it only fifteen feet 
wide, but others give thirty feet as its width.* It had an embank- 
ment on the inner side. Sir R. C. Hoar remarks : " Writers have 
described this as a deep ditch and thirty feet wide, and have not 
noticed the ditch being on the outside of the vallum. According 
to our measurement the ditch could not have exceeded fifteen 
feet ; in short, this whole line of circumvallation was a very slight 
work. It was about eleven hundred feet in circumference. It did 
not entirely surround the temple. There was an interval of sixty 
feet to the northeast, where was the entrance to the enclosure, and in 
face of it the entrance to the temple." 

The Avenue. — At this entrance to the enclosure the ditch on each 
side of it went off northeast in two parallel straight lines, sixty feet 
apart, to the distance of somewhat more than seventeen hundred 
feet in a straight line, with a delicate descent down to the bottom 
of the valley, where it divided into two branches. The earth of 
the ditches was thrown inward on both sides upon the avenue, to 
raise it a little above the plain. 

The Western Branch, from this termination at the bottom of the 
valley, one thousand cubits from the entrance to the enclosure of 
Stonehenge, goes off with a sweep at first, and does not throw itself 
into a straight line immediately, but continues curving along the 
bottom of the hill till it meets the Cursus. At the bottom of the 
valley and the end of the straight part of Stonehenge Avenue, the 
Eastern Wing turns off to the right with a circular sweep, and then 
in a straight line proceeds eastward up the hill. It goes just be- 
tween two most conspicuous groups of barrows, crowning the 
ridge of the hill eastward of Stonehenge, between it and Vespa- 
sian's camp, separated from them both by the deep valley on 
each side. Whilst we are here, upon the elevation of this hill, be- 
tween these two famous groups of barrows, each consisting of seven 
barrows, it is twenty-seven hundred feet from the beginning of this 
wing of the avenue at the bottom of the valley where it began. It 
still continues in the very same direction eastward till unfor- 
tunately broken off by ploughed ground three hundred feet from 
hence, and that amounts to seven hundred and fifty feet more in 
length to the avenue ; this is all along the eastern declivity of the 
hill, and reaches near the bottom of the valley between it and the 

* Some give it different widths, it being wider in some places than in others. 
This variation may probably account for the different widths given to this 
fosse by different writers. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



61 



hill whereon stands Vespasian's camp. Now reason and the 
judgment I have got in conversing with works of this kind tell 
me the founders would never begin this avenue at the bottom of 
a valley, but rather on a conspicuous height, which is visible from 
a great distance round. We must suppose the intent of the avenue 
was to direct the religious processions to the temple, and that at 
the beginning of it they made fires early ,in the morning of that 
day when they held their grand festivals, to give notice to all the 
adjacent country. Therefore when we cross this valley, still east- 
ward, and mount the next hill, whereon stands Vespasian's camp, 
we find exactly such a place as we could wish, and extremely 
suitable to that purpose, for it commands an extensive prospect, 
both upwards and downwards, of the river Avon, and on the other 
side of it for many miles — all about that part of the country 
where it is highly reasonable to believe the old Britons lived who 
frequented this temple. It was the custom of the Druids to give 
notice by fires of the quarterly days of sacrifice. I observed there 
had been a bank across the bottom of the valley for the more easy 
passage of the religious processions, and this much corroborates my 
conjecture of the avenue reaching hither. 

I am apt to believe, from the conformity I have observed in 
these works, that there was a Sacellum* or little temple here upon 
this hill, where the avenue began. In travelling to Stonehenge, 
or from it, I have found several of these kind of large stones. 
One, big as any at "Stonehenge, lies about three miles northward, 
in Darrington field, another in the water at Milford, another at 
Figheldean ; they seem to have been carried away to make bridges, 
mill-dams, or the like, in the river. There is another in the Lon- 
don road east from Ambresbury, about a mile from that town ; an- 
other in the water at Bulford. What confirms me in the conjecture 
that there was a sacellum here originally is that an innumerable 
company of barrows on the opposite hill, on the other side of the 
river Avon, coming down Haradon Hill and in the line of the avenue, 
seem to regard it, for these barrows are not in sight of Stonehenge 
itself, by reason of the interposition of the hill whereon stands the 
group of the seven kings' graves. The distance from hence to 
Stonehenge is four thousand cubits. In order to have a just notion of 
this avenue it is necessary to go to the neighboring height of Hara- 

* " A small place, consecrated to a god, containing an altar, and sometimes 
also a statue of the god to which it was dedicated. Festus states that it never had 
a roof. It was therefore a sacred enclosure surrounded by a fence or wall to 
separate it from the profane ground around it. Its form was sometimes square, 
and sometimes round." 



62 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VIII. 



don Hill, on the other side of the river. The largest barrow there, 
which I call Hara's, and which probably gave name to the hill, is 
in the line of the avenue, the ford of Radfin lying between. From 
this barrow you see the ground on the hill whereon stands Ves- 
pasian's camp, where I conjecture the avenue of Stonehenge began, 
and where was a little Sacellum, as we conceive. From hence to 
that spot a valley leads very commodiously to Radfin, where the 
original ford was. 

The Cursus. — If from the entrance to Stonehenge you look north- 
east directly down the avenue, the apex of a hill terminates the 
horizon, between which and the bottom of the valley you see the 
cursus, a work which has never yet been taken notice of, being a 
space of ground included between two long banks going parallel, 
east and west at three hundred and fifty feet distance, the length 
ten thousand feet. This was designed for the chariot races and 
games like the Olympic, the Isthmian, etc., of the Greeks. In 
the valley, on this side of it, the straight part of the avenue ter- 
minates in two branches. That on the left hand leads to the cursus, 
that on the right goes directly up the hill, between two famous 
groups of barrows, each consisting of seven in number. The farthest, 
or those northward, I call the oldest kings' barrows ; the hithermost 
are vulgarly called the seven kings 1 graves. 

Isolated Stones. — As the spectator advances from the valley up 
the grand avenue to the temple, the first stone that is met stands 
two hundred and ten feet from the body of the structure, in the 
midst of the avenue, and in a straight line with the grand entrance. 
The shape of the stone is pyramidal, twenty-four feet nine inches 
in circumference, sixteen feet four inches in height, nine feet 
broad, and six feet thick. This stone had a hole in it, which is 
observable of like stones set thus near to similar temples. One 
hundred feet beyond, and in a line with this last-mentioned stone, 
was another very large one, in the vallum at the entrance to the 
enclosure; it was twenty-one feet four inches long, seven feet 
broad, and three feet thick. It was about eighty-five feet from the 
temple. On the southeast side of the enclosure, near the vallum, 
was a stone ten feet six inches high, thirteen feet six inches in 
circumference, of a pyramidal form, and nearly ninety feet from 
the temple. On the northwest side of the enclosure, and directly 
opposite this last stone, was a stone four feet high, eleven feet 
nine inches in circumference, ninety feet from the temple. These 
are all the stones detached from this venerable temple. 

Directly north and south of the temple, just within the vallum, 
is the appearance of two circular holes, encompassed with the 



CHAP. VIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



63 



earth thrown out of them, but they are now almost effaced by 
time. * 

Wansey, who wrote of Stonehenge in the year 1796 a. d., in his 
account of it makes the following remark in regard to it : " Stone- 
henge stands in the best situation possible for observing the 
heavenly bodies, as there is a horizon nearly three miles distant 
on all sides, and on either side distant hills ; trees might have been 
planted so as to have measured any number of degrees of a circle, 
so as to calculate the right ascension or declination of a star or 
planet. But till we know the methods by which the ancient 
Druids calculated eclipses long before they happened, so as to 
have made their astronomical observations with so much accuracy, 
as Caesar mentions, we cannot explain the theoretical uses of Stone- 
henge. It is, therefore, no proof that Stonehenge was not intended 
for calculating the motions of the heavenly bodies because no 
present method of making observations is to be applied to the 
Druids. Their geometrical skill, notwithstanding, cannot be 
doubted." 

Robertson, in the appendix to his " History of India," says : 
" The method of predicting eclipses followed by the Brahmins is 
of a kind altogether different from any found among the nations 
of Europe. In Chaldea also, as well as in Greece, in early ages, 
the method of calculating eclipses was founded on the observa- 
tion of a certain period or cycle, after which the sun and moon 
agree with their former calculations." 

Monsieur Bailly, the celebrated astronomer and unfortunate 
Mayor of Paris, maintained " That none of all astronomical sys- 
tems of Greece, Persia or Tartary can be made to agree with the 
Indian tables, which, however, calculated back to remote ages, are 
found quite as accurate as ours. The place of the sun for the 
beginning of the Calyougham, in the year 3102 before Christ, as 
stated in the tables of Tirvalore, is only forty-seven minutes greater 
than the tables of M. de la Caille, when corrected by the calculations 
of M. de la Grange. 

" Were a learned Brahmin to contemplate on the ruins of Stone- 
henge, he might possibly comprehend more of its design than we 
do, and trace some vestiges of an art w T holly unknown to us." 

From the manuscript of Aubrey we gain some curious informa- 
tion respecting one of the great trilithons of the hexagon. The 
leaning of the pillar of the greatest trilithon is attributed to the 
researches made in the year 1620 by George, Duke of Bucking- 



* Stukeley, 1743, a. d. 



64 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. VIII. 



ham, who, when King James the First was at Wilton (the seat of 
the Earls of Pembroke), " did cause the middle of Stonehenge to be 
digged, and this under digging was the cause of the falling downe 
or recumbency of the greatest, not here twenty-one foote long." 
It finally fell from the effects of a severe freeze on the 3d of January, 
1797. In the process of this digging they found a great many 
horns of stags and oxen, charcoal, batterdashes, heads of arrows, 
some pieces of armor eaten out with rust, bones rotten, but whether 
of stags or men they could not tell. He further adds that Philip, 
Earl of Pembroke (Lord Chamberlayne to King Charles the First), 
did say : " That an altar stone was found in the middle of the 
area here, and that it was carried to St. James's."* 

Cunningham says : " Any person well versed in mineralogy 
will perceive that the stones on the outside of the work, those of 
the outward circle and its imposts, as well as the five hugh trili- 
thons, are all from Maryborough Downs, ten miles north of Stone- 
henge, which are covered with vast quantities of stones of the same 
kind, whereas those of the inner circle and the interior oval are 
composed of granite, hornstone, and most probably were brought 
from some part of Devon or Cornwall, as I know not where such 
stones could be procured at a nearer distance." 

Stukeley says : " The stones of which Stonehenge is composed, 
beyond any controversy, came from those called Grey Withers 
upon Marlborough downs, near Aubury, where is that other most 
wonderful work of this sort." 

The Temple of Avebury. 
At Avebury, or Abury, a village nineteen miles north of Stone- 
henge, is the site of the most remarkable and stupendous monu- 
ment of British antiquity, and unquestionably the most consid- 
erable and important in Britain. It consists of a great number 
of unhewn stones placed perpendicularly on the ground, and dis- 
posed in parallel rows and circles. There were four of the latter 
included in a fifth ; and at the end of the southern avenue, at one 
mile distant from the great circle, there were two concentric oval 
arrangements of stones. The number of stones originally em- 
ployed in the whole work amounted to six hundred and fifty, and 
most of them measured from fifteen to seventeenf feet in height 

* As these relics were found between the altar and the great trilithon, where 
the digging took place, may not these remains be those of the sacrifices offered 
on the altar? Showing that Stonehenge was not only devoted to astronomy, 
but also to religious purposes. 

fThis measure, 15 to 17, is from the Royal Gazette; in Kees' Encyclopaedia, 
from which the description is taken, the measure is "from 10 to 19." 



CHAP. VIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



65 



above the ground, forty feet in circumference, and weighed 
from forty to fifty-four tons each. The large circle and the 
principal part of this temple were surrounded by a very consid- 
erable vallum and ditch, which included an area of twenty-two 
acres of ground, and measured about fourteen hundred feet in a 
transverse diameter. This bank and ditch must have been pro- 
duced with immense labor, and its peculiarity of formation proves 
that it was never intended for a fortified place in time of war, as 
the bank is thrown up on the outer verge of the ditch ; whereas 
all military encampments have the bank within the ditch, to give 
an advantageous height of ground to the besieged. The vallum 
measured about thirty feet in height from the top to the middle of 
the ditch. Supposing that it was raised for spectators to behold 
any ceremonies performed in the enclosed area, it would accom- 
modate more than seventy thousand persons and allow two square 
feet to each. The boundary embraced one large and four small 
circular arrangements of stones. The first was about thirty-five 
feet within the ditch, and consisted of a hundred stones placed 
at nearly regular distances from each other. Within the circle 
were two double concentric circles composed of eighty- eight 
stones, three others called the cove, and one called the central 
obelisk. From the large circle proceeded two avenues, or double 
rows of large upright stones, placed at nearly regular distances in 
each row, and from one row to the other. These consisted of two 
hundred stones extending about one mile in length each way, and 
were called the Beckhampton and Kennet avenues. The first 
proceeded from the temple in a westerly direction, and was termi- 
nated with a single stone, while the other took a southeastern 
direction, and had two oval stones at the extremity. The objects 
we have already described are considered by some persons as the 
whole of this extraordinary monument; but it seems very proba- 
ble that Silbury Hill, some cromlechs, other circles, and numerous 
relics, were originally connected with it. Silbury Hill is consid- 
ered as the largest tumulus in England, and its situation implies 
that it was intended to mark the meridian line from the centre of 
the temple. It was due south of the great circle. It measured 
one hundred and five feet at the top, five hundred and sixty at 
the base, two hundred and forty in height, following the surface 
of its northern side, and sixteen hundred and eighty in circum- 
ference at the bottom. From the top of this artificial hill a spec- 
tator commands a view of the western avenue and the whole area 
of the temple, with a considerable tract of flat country to the 
north and west. 

5 



66 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VIII. 



Goths, Vandals and Turks have been stigmatized as the merci- 
less destroyers of every venerable and interesting monument of 
antiquity : but surely they are not more reprehensible than many 
of the inhabitants of this highly civilized and refined country, 
some of whom have exercised much ingenuity and labor in wan- 
tonly and deliberately destroying this singular monument of 
ancient customs. We have already stated that it originally con- 
sisted of six hundred and fifty stones, but most of these have been 
broken in pieces by means of fire and manual labor, and the 
dissevered fragments appropriated to the construction of walls, 
hovels, and common roads. In 1722 only forty remained of the 
great circle, of which number seventeen were standing ; but these 
are now* reduced to nine. The interior circles were almost entire 
in 1716, but in 1723 only two stones were left erect belonging 
to the outward circle of the northern temple. Of the Kennet 
avenue there were seventy-two stones in 1772, of which onh T 
eight or ten remain : and only two of the Beckhampton avenue. 

The stones used in forming this temple are of siliceous grit, 
being of the same species as those that accompany the great 
stratum of chalk which crosses England from E.N.E. to W.S.W. 
These stones lie on the ground in detached masses, unconnected 
with any stratum of rock.f 

The Temple of Carnac. 
The monuments of the first people who are known to have in- 
habited western Europe still exist, but in all jDrobability ages 
before these first known inhabitants other peoples inhabited these 
regions, and transmitted their religious ideas and ceremonies to 
those who succeeded them. Though the conformation of the 
coast of western Europe in remote ages is unknown, and though 
the people who inhabited it and their intercourse with the rest of 
the world are also unknown, yet great changes are known to have 
taken place in the earth's surface, and it is probable that lands 
have been severed that, once united, formed a more extensive 
continent, which stretched beyond the present limits of western 
Europe, and it is probable at some day scientific investigation 
will show that the ancient people of the new world, though sepa- 
rated by vast oceans from those of the old, were nevertheless of 
the same stock, and that the monuments and the religious ideas 

* The edition of Bees' Encyclopaedia from which the above was taken is 
dated 1819. 

f In Bees' Encyclopaedia, under the name Avebury, will be found an inter- 
esting account of the purposes of this wonderful work. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



67 



and ceremonies of the most ancient people of western Europe are 
but prototypes of those of the ancient people of America. 

Where the Gaels spread themselves over Britain and Gaul they 
made their monuments and erected their temples. Some of these 
have survived the ravages of time and the violence of man. 
Though some of them be described as still existing, yet it must 
be borne in mind that many years have elapsed since the original 
accounts of these monuments were made by observant and intel- 
ligent travellers, and that in the meantime the action of the ele- 
ments and the spirit of utility have made havoc with many of 
them, and but for the accounts of these travellers the existence of 
some of them would not now be known. Human violence in 
some instances has been more effective in the destruction of 
the monuments of antiquity than the elements themselves. The 
Gallic structures, though of extreme antiquity, have, from the 
peculiarity of their situation, survived, while other monuments, 
more conspicuous and more exposed, have perished. The follow- 
ing accounts of some of the most remarkable monuments of the 
Gaels will show the extent to which their religious institutions 
have reached to the north, and the striking resemblance of their 
monuments in many respects to the most ancient structures of 
America. 

There are met with here and there in France enormous blocks 
of rude stones erected and fixed in the earth, isolated or in groups, 
regularly in a right line. They are rarely found in the plains, but 
frequently in the mountainous country. They are erected most 
often on mounds, either natural or artificial. Sometimes the block, 
instead of being planted in the ground, is poised in equilibrium 
upon another stone, or upon the ground, and oscillates at the 
least shock without quitting its base. Besides, rude pillars sup- 
port a table composed of one or more great flat stones, and form 
a kind of grotto closed at one of its ends by another flat rock. 
Some of these artificial grottoes are at least twenty metres in 
depth. In some places, much more rarely, the blocks are arranged 
in vast concentric circles. 

The Gallic stones appear preserved in the greatest number in 
gradation as we advance towards the west of Gaul. The rows 
and grottoes of stone take extraordinary proportions in the part 
of Amorica where they still speak the Cimbric (" Kimbric ") lan- 
guage, especially in the ancient country of the Venetes, the coun- 
try of the Vannes. Nearly two thousand men-hirs lie scattered 
overthrown in the single heath of Upper Brambien. At Carnac 
eleven avenues of granite men-hirs, some of which are twenty feet 



68 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. VIII. 



in height, remains of a collection much greater, still erect, extend 
in a straight line farther than the eye can see. At Erdeven and 
at Plouhinec are also seen considerable rows. At Lecmariaker, 
among a group of tumuli, dolmens and men-hirs, is seen lying on 
the ground and broken into four pieces a monolith of twenty-one 
metres in length, which weighs two hundred and fifty thousand 
kilogrammes. Not far from there, if one climbs upon the summit 
of the tumulus which crowns the isle of Gavr-Ynys, in the strait 
by which the great lagoon of Morbihad communicates with the 
sea, he beholds the whole of one coast covered with Gallic monu- 
ments for three leagues in length, by one in breadth, and this sol- 
emn horizon is closed by the peninsula of Quiberon, which keeps 
also its raised stones, and by the immense tumulus of the penin- 
sula of Rhuys, which is one hundred feet in height by three hun- 
dred and fifty at the base. In excavating this tumulus there was 
found buried under an enormous dolman the remains of a human 
skeleton, thirty knives of jade ascien or tumalite dure, and three 
necklaces of jasper, agates, and crystal of quartz beads unpolished. 
The walls of the cavern were covered with sculptures, among which 
were serpents, lengthened triangles, recalling the cuniform char- 
acters, three collars or necklaces superposed. The neighboring 
village is called Tumac. It is probable that the tumuli of Tumac 
was the funeral monument of a great religious chief, for the knives 
of jade were the sacred implements, and the collars of jasper were 
probably the sacerdotal ornaments. The collars of knights were 
of gold. Collars of gold have been found under divers dolmens 
and tumuli with human remains and earthen vases. The two 
processes of inhumation and cremation of the dead were known 
to the Gauls, but the second was preferred as more comformable 
to their religious ideas. 

What was the meaning, what was the object of these rude monu- 
ments where man has evidently made it a law not to modify in 
any respect the forms of nature ? What repeated excavations 
have revealed with certainty is that the tumuli have most often 
the funereal character, and that this character belongs equally, at 
least, to a part of the dolmens, as, besides, the Kimric and Gaelic 
poetry indicates. We cannot doubt, after these same evidences, 
that these artificial caves in which are deposited the remains of 
heroes were also sanctuaries. We know also that these sacred en- 
closures, where were celebrated religious rites, whether they were 
but plain circles of stones or enclosed structures, were called 
Nemedes (Neimheidh), from the name of a mysterious Eastern pa- 
triarch, personification of the unity of the Gallic race in Asia, and 



CHAP. IX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



69 



common father of the Gaels and Kimris. This word Neimheidh 
is found as the radical of many Gallic names, as Nemetum (Cler- 
mont), Nemausus (Nimes). Neimheidh appears to have signified, 
primitively, at the same time, temple and priest, law and legislator. 

In these enclosures, in these sancturaries, constructed with the 
masses of material such as they sprung from the hands of the 
Creator, never is there erected a representative figure. No idols 
are discovered on the soil belonging to the ages of Gallic inde- 
pendence. The absence of idols, the undressed stones, the absence 
of images in architecture — in other words, the interdiction of man 
to modify by the combinations of his imagination the works of the 
Creator so as to represent materially the divine powers, are they 
traits peculiar to the Gauls? History attests the contrary; it is 
the general character of that religious age of humanity, which we can 
call with just title the primitive church, of which we can discover 
the trace among the first Indians, China, and everywhere, and 
which manifestly appears in the traditions of the Persians, the 
Hebrews, the Teutons, and all the nomads confounded by the 
Greeks under the name of Scythians. 

These traits, common to the Gauls, with so many Japethic 
and Shemetic peoples, if not with all the primitive world, become 
for them a distinction in classical antiquity by their fidelity in 
preserving them in the presence of those cultures of art, image 
and imagination which constituted Grecian, Etruscan and Latin 
idolatry.* 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Serpent Mound of Oban, Scotland — Prehistoric Remains near the Serpent 
Mound of Ohio — The Kistvean — The Rocking Stone of Fordham, Xew 
York, and Druidical or Sabian Circles in Central Arabia — The Monumental 
Stones of Algeria, Constantine and Tripoli, in Africa — The Men-hirs of 
Setif, Monumental Stones of Hindustan, the Dekkau and Southern India. 

There remains something to be said of Serpent Mounds and of 
some other remarkable monuments of the remotest antiquity. 

About three miles from Oban, in Scotland, " lies a huge serpent- 
shaped mound, the very existence of which was utterly unknown 
to the scientific world till discovered by Mr. Phene, and by him re- 
vealed to the Antiquarian Society in the summer of 1871. But 
for the presence of one of the few initiated, who had fortunately 



* Martin, " Histoire de France." 



70 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. IX. 



accompanied us," says Miss dimming, " we should assuredly have 
passed close below the heathery mound which forms the serpent's 
tail (in fact the road has been cut right across the tip of it) with- 
out ever suspecting that it differed from the surrounding moor- 
land. In short we should have been no wiser than our forefathers 
who, for centuries, have passed and repassed along the same 
beaten tract, whence only an occasional sportsman or shepherd 
has had occasion to diverge. It does seem strange, however, that 
not one of these, looking down from the higher ground to the west- 
ward, should ever have called attention to so remarkable a form, and 
one, moreover, which rises so conspicuously from the flat, grassy 
plain which stretches for some distance on either side with scarcely 
an undulation, save two artificial circular mounds, in one of which 
lies several large stones forming a cromlech. These mounds are 
situated a short distance to the south, to the right of the serpent. 

" Finding ourselves thus unconsciously in the presence of the 
Great Dragon, we hastened to improve our acquaintance, and in a 
couple of minutes had scrambled on to the ridge which forms his 
backbone, and thence perceived that we were standing on an arti- 
ficial mound three hundred feet in length, forming a double curve, 
like a huge letter S, and wonderfully perfect in anatomical outline. 
This we perceived the more perfectly on reaching the head, which 
lies at the western end, whence diverge small ridges. On the head 
rests a circle of stones supposed to be emblematic of the solar 
disk, and exactly corresponding with the solar circle as represented 
in the head of the mystic serpents of Egypt and Phoenicia, and in 
the great American Serpent Mound. At the time of Mr. Phene's 
first visit to this spot there still remained in the centre of this 
circle some traces of an altar, which have since wholly disap- 
peared. 

" The circle was excavated on the 12th day of October, 1871, and 
within it were found three large stones forming a chamber which 
contained burnt human bones, charcoal and charred hazel nuts. 
A flint instrument was also found, beautifully and minutely ser- 
rated at the edge ; nevertheless, it was at once evident on opening 
the cairn, that the- place had been already ransacked, probably 
in secret by treasure-hunters, as there is no tradition of any exca- 
vation for scientific purposes having ever been made here. 

" On the removal of the peat-moss and heather from the ridge of 
the serpent's back, it was found that the whole length of the spine 
was carefully constructed with regularly and systematically placed 
stones at such an angle as to throw off rain. To those who know 
how slow is the growth of peat-moss even in damp and undrained 



CHAP. IX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



71 



places, the depth to which it has here attained, though in a dry 
and thoroughly exposed situation, and raised from seventeen to 
twenty feet above the level of the surrounding moss,* tells of many 
a long century of silent, undisturbed growth, since the days when 
the serpent's spine was the well-worn path daily trodden by rever- 
ent feet. The spine is, in fact, a long, narrow causeway made of 
large stones set like the vertebras of some huge animal. They 
form a ridge sloping off in an angle at each side, which is con- 
tinued downwards with an arrangement of smaller stones sugges- 
tive of ribs. 

" It is certainly a fact worthy of notice, that wherever names oc- 
cur combining the syllables Ob and On (the Serpent and Sun dei- 
ties of Egypt and Phoenicia), there these forms of worship can be 
proven to have once prevailed, and so it has been suggested, as 
not impossible, that just as the Israelites called the first place where 
they encamped, after the upraising of the brazen serpent, Oboth, 
the race who built the serpentine mound terminating in a solar 
circle, and who, doubtless, were settlers from some eastern land, 
may have given the name of Ob or Oban to the nearest town." 

In connection with this account of the Serpent Mound of Oban, 
the following " Prehistoric Remains " will be interesting: 

[Correspondence of the Times- Democrat, New Orleans, March 4th, 1894.] 

" Hillsboro, 0., Feb. 24th, 1894. — Farmer Warren Cowen, of 
Hillsboro, 0., while fox-hunting recently, discovered several ancient 
graves. They were situated upon a high point of land in High- 
land county, about a mile from the famous Serpent mound. As 
soon as the weather permitted, Cowen excavated several of these 
graves. He informed your correspondent that the graves were 
made of large limestone slabs, two and a half to three feet in length, 
and a foot wide. These were set on edge, about a foot apart. Sim- 
ilar slabs covered the grave. A single one, somewhat larger, was at 
the head, and another at the feet. The top of the grave was two 
feet below the present surface. Upon opening one of the graves, a 
skeleton, upward of six feet in length, was brought to light, There 
were a number of stone hatchets, beads, and ornaments of pecu- 
liar workmanship near the right arm. Several large flint spear 
and arrow-heads among the ribs gave evidence that the mighty 
warrior died in battle. In another grave was the skeleton of a 
man equally as large. The right leg had been broken during life, 
and the bones had grown together. The protuberance at the point 
of union was as large as an egg, and the limb was bent like a bow. 

* This probably indicates the height of the serpent mound. 



72 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. IX. 



By the feet lay a skull of some enemy or slave. Several pipes and 
pendants were near the shoulders." 

In the other graves Cowen made equally interesting finds. It 
seems that this region was populated by a fairly intelligent people, 
and that the serpent mound was an object of worship. Near the 
graves is a large field, in which are broken implements, fragments 
of pottery, and burnt stones, giving evidence of a prehistoric vil- 
lage site. Probably the people buried on the hill lived in this 
village.* 

The Old World has, besides tumuli, other very ancient monu- 
ments, which are, in this connection, worthy of notice — monu- 
ments to which there are none similar in America — and these are 
the Druidic circles, cromlechs and dolmens, while the kistveans — 
that is, stone chests — and loggon or rocking-stones, are found here. 
Kistveans commonly consist of four flags, three of which are set up 
edgeways ; two, being nearly parallel, and the third at right angles 
to them, form the three sides of the chest, and the fourth flag, laid 
flat on top of these, makes the lid. At Fordham, adjoining the city 
of New York, there was, about the year 1850, a loggon, or rocking - 
stone, which was, according to my recollection, about three or four 
feet high and four or five feet long. It was oval in form, both ends 
shaped alike. It stood on a level surface, without any other stones 
near it. I do not remember the kind of stone it was. As large as 
this stone was, I easily moved it with only one hand. Stone 
chests in the New World have been mentioned by antiquarians as 
depositories of the remains of ancient inhabitants of America. 

There is a monument mentioned by Palgrave in his " Central 
and Eastern Arabia," situated about midway between the Arabian 
and the Persian Gulf, and not far north of the centre of the Ara- 
bian peninsula. Palgrave, speaking of it, says : " We halted for a 
moment on the verge of the uplands, to enjoy the magnificent 
prospect before us. Below lay the wide plain. . . . All along the 
ridge where we stood, and visible at various distances down the 
level, rose the tall, circular watch-towers of Kaseem. But imme- 
diately before us stood a more remarkable monument — one that 
fixed the wonder and attention even of our Arab companions 
themselves ; for hardly had we descended the narrow path where 
it winds, from ledge to ledge, down to the bottom, when we saw 

* It is often mentioned that large skeletons are found in mounds. This prob- 
ably comes from the fact that great physical force in ancient barbarous times 
had a great influence among such people, especially when accompanied with 
intelligence and courage ; and such men became chiefs, distinguished themselves, 
and were buried with great demonstrations of veneration and respect. 



CHAP. IX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



73 



before us several huge stones, like enormous boulders, placed end- 
ways, perpendicular on the soil, while some of them yet upheld 
similar masses laid transversely over their summits. They were 
arranged in a curve — once forming a part, it would appear, of a 
large circle — and many other like fragments lay rolled on the 
ground at a moderate distance. The number of these still up- 
right was, to speak from memory, eight or nine. Two, at about 
ten or twelve feet apart, one from the other, and resembling huge 
gate-posts, yet bore their horizontal lintel —a long block laid across 
them ; a few were deprived of their upper traverse ; the rest sup- 
ported each its head-piece, in defiance of time and of the more 
destructive efforts of man. So nicely balanced did one of these 
cross-bars appear, that, in hope it might prove a rocking-stone, I 
guided my camel right under it, and then stretching up my riding- 
stick at arm's-length, I could just manage to touch and push it, 
but it did not stir. Meanwhile, the respective heights of camel 
rider and stick, taken together, would place the stone in question 
fully fifteen feet from the ground. 

" These blocks seemed, by their quality, to have been hewn from 
the neighboring limestone cliff, and roughly shaped, but present 
no further trace of art — no groove or cavity of sacrificial import, 
much less anything intended for figure or ornament. Pointing 
towards Rass, our companions affirmed that a second and similar 
stone circle, also of gigantic dimensions, existed there; and lastly 
they mentioned a third towards the southwest; that is, on the con- 
fines of Hejaz. 

"That the object of these strange constructions was in some 
measure religious, seems to me hardly doubtful ; and if the learned 
conjectures that would discover a planetary symbolism in Stone- 
henge and Carnac have any real foundation, this Arabian monu- 
ment, erected in a land where the heavenly bodies are known to 
have been once venerated by the inhabitants, may make a like 
claim ; in fact, there is little difference between the stone-wonder 
of Kaseem and that of Wiltshire, except that the one is in Arabia, 
the other, though the more perfect, in England." 

Miss Cumming, in speaking of the Druidic monuments of the 
Old World, says : u Of all the wide-spread links which bind to- 
gether the shadowy past of the Eastern and Western worlds, none 
are more striking than the stubborn facts of these mysterious 
stone circles and other rude stone monuments. On the remotest 
Orcadian Isles, as in the Hebrides, on the green shores of the Isle 
of Lewis, and beneath the mountain peaks of Arran, and in many 
another isle, we find the same uncouth temples and tombs that 



74 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. IX. 



meet us again in the heart of the Indian jungle. Perhaps the most 
noteworthy monument of the sort in Scotland is the serpentine 
double avenue at Karnes, on the Kyles of Bute, discovered so re- 
cently as January, 1875. 

" Whatever truth or falsehood there may be in the theories which 
connect these cyclopean remains with the worship of olden days, 
certain it is, as we travel eastward we again and again find the 
same forms repeated so exactly that it seems hardly possible to 
doubt their having been the work of kindred races. Thus on cer- 
tain stones near Carthage the circle and creseent are found carved 
as emblems of the sun and moon, just as on the British monu- 
ments. As to Algeria, it has recently been discovered to abound 
in every known form of rude stone monuments, even including 
that mysterious combination of square with two circles which has 
puzzled antiquarians in the American States. At one spot, Roknia, 
three thousand monoliths are grouped together as if in a vast city 
of the dead ; and a second cluster, nearly as large, has since been 
discovered near Constantine. In the district near Setif the num- 
ber of men-hirs has been calculated at ten thousand, including 
some stones so gigantic that one is described as fifty-two feet high 
and twenty-six feet in diameter at the base ; while we hear of 
a dolmen near Tiaret, the cap-stone of which is sixty-five feet 
long by twenty-six feet broad, and upwards of nine feet thick 
— a rock-mass which is poised on boulders of thirty to forty feet 
high. i 

" Tripoli likewise possesses many of these mysterious remains, 
more especially certain groups of three great stones so placed as to 
form high, narrow door-ways, so narrow that a man of average size 
can scarcely squeeze his way through between them.* We next 
hear of them being discovered by Palgrave in Central Arabia, 
where he finds them placed, as at Stonehenge, in connection with 
circles of great monoliths. 

" To pass onward to Hindustan, we find dolmens in Malabar con- 
sisting of one huge stone poised on three upright ones, precisely 
the same as those found in Britain. There is not one form of cy- 
clopean monument known in the British Isles or in France which 
does not also exist in the Dekkan, either for worship or for sepul- 

* In " The Antiquities of England and Wales," by Francis Grose, is this: 
' ' There is a rock of the Tolmen kind at Bombay, in the East Indias, which is 
held in great veneration by the Gentoos. It is called the rock of purification. A 
passage through it is considered as purifying the penitent from all sins. The 
aperture is described as so small that a man of any corpulency cannot possibly 
squeeze through." 



CHAP. X.] 



OF AMERICA. 



75 



ture ; oblongs, circles, parallel lines, and many little circles within 
one large circle. 

" In various parts of Southern India there have been found a great 
multitude of circular sepulchral tumuli. They contain the same 
class of relics, coarse pottery, arms, arrow-heads, &c, buried some- 
times with bodies, sometimes with urns containing human ashes 
collected from funeral pyres after cremation. They exist in thou- 
sands to the south of a line drawn from Nangpore to Belgaum. 
In parts of Mysore and the Neilgherries, in Arcot and other places 
they are met with in large numbers, occasionally accompanied by 
kistveans ; sometimes by dolmens and cromlechs ; in fact just 
what we call Druidical stones. In some of these kistveans are 
found bodies carefully laid, while above them are heaped human 
bones, male and female, in indiscriminate confusion, as though 
they had been offered in sacrifice to the dead. The same tumuli 
are found by thousands near the Krishna and Moosy rivers. It is 
rather a singular and hideously suggestive fact that in some of the 
corresponding barrows of ancient Britain these bodies that seem 
to have been sacrificed to the dead are found in such a condition, 
with bones split and skulls cracked, and all tossed about in wild- 
est confusion, that it is generally supposed the flesh had been 
eaten at some cannibal feast after the sacrifice ! a custom which 
some of the Indian hill tribes are suspected of having kept up till 
a very recent date." It thus appears that mounds of various 
kinds have been erected in almost «all the inhabited parts of 
Europe and Asia ; that they have been the work of different peo- 
ples at divers times, during a long succession of ages, and that 
many of them are the most ancient monuments in the Old World. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Tumuli of America. 

Peru— Religion — Deities — Huacas — Academies — Astronomy — Division of Time 
— Festivals — Sacrifices — Navigation of the Peruvians — Of the Yucatans — 
Of the Florid ians. 

In the Old World, history has transmitted to posterity the origin 
of some of the tumuli still existing there after the lapse of nearly 
three thousand years ; has given an account of their construction 
and the purposes for which they were made ; while the record it 
has given of the religious rites that prevailed to a great extent in 
that remote period has thrown much light on other tumuli of 



76 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. X. 



which there has been transmitted no record. But the New World 
presents not advantages to the same extent in studying the monu- 
mental remains of its early inhabitants, who have left similar 
monuments scattered over its surface, and it is only by reference 
to the religion and customs of its more recent inhabitants that a 
knowledge can be acquired of the object and purposes of monu- 
ments of a later date, while the design of those of a more remote 
period may probably remain forever in oblivion, with the human 
remains they once contained mouldered to the dust from whence 
they came. 

The religious sentiment caused the huge temples and pyramidal 
piles of Egypt, and the beautiful temples hewn in the granite 
mountains of India; and a similar sentiment probably produced 
many of the rude monuments scattered over the New World, the 
tumuli of extinct and forgotten nations. In the many ages that 
America has been populated the various nations that have risen 
and perished, impelled by that motive peculiar to man, have en- 
deavored to perpetuate the memory of their existence by leaving 
their monuments to posterity, and thus have these tumuli and 
earthworks increased, until now they are found from Canada to 
Chili. 

The continents of America have, like those of the Old World, 
been occupied for ages. Nations and empires have risen and 
perished, and been succeeded by others which, like those that 
preceded them, have had their day. 

Ciezar de Leon, in speaking of the Indians of the province of 
Quinbaya, on the upper waters of the river Magdalena, says : " In 
ancient times these Indians were not natives of Quinbaya, but 
they invaded the country many times, killing the inhabitants, 
who could not have been few, judging from the remains of their 
works, for all the dense canebrakes seem once to have been peopled 
and tilled, as well as the mountainous parts, where there are trees 
as big around as two bullocks. From these facts I conjecture that 
a very long period of time has elapsed since the Indians first 
peopled the Indies." 

The Mexicans, like the barbarians who invaded the civilized 
portions of Europe in the fourth century, and the Arabs who over- 
ran the civilized portions of western Asia and of northern Africa 
in the eighth and several succeeding centuries, found the people 
of the countries which they invaded more civilized than them- 
selves. And the same may be said of the Asiatic hordes led by 
Zenghis Khan and his successors in the thirteenth century. 

The Peruvian religion, founded upon the worship of the Sun, 



CHAP. X.] 



OF AMERICA. 



77 



was introduced by the Incas, and superseded an anterior worship. 
Previous to this reform the ancient inhabitants of Peru professed 
a creed which, however grossly disfigured it may have been by 
puerile superstitions, still attained to the conception of a Supreme 
Being, Creator of all that exists. The Supreme Being was called 
Con, and had no human form or material body, but was an in- 
visible and omnipotent spirit which inhabited the universe. 

The human race giving themselves up to vice and crime, and 
disregarding the respect due to Con, he converted their fertile re- 
gions into sterile deserts, and transformed the race into black cats 
and other horrible animals, leaving the earth uncultivated and 
deserted, until Pachacamac, son of Con, taking charge of the gov- 
ernment of the world, re-created all that had been destroyed by 
his father. 

The temple of Pachacamac, the immense ruins of which are 
still visible near the town of Lurin, to the south of Lima, was the 
only one throughout the whole country that was dedicated to the 
Supreme Being. Pilgrims from distant territories directed thither 
their steps to present their offerings and worship the Deity. They 
passed with safety even through the inimical provinces against 
which they had declared war, without other conditions than that 
they should go in small parties, unarmed, under which condition 
they were entertained and supported in all parts according to the 
mutual convenience of all parties. According to vestiges long 
prior to the introduction of the religion of the Incas, it is not 
probable that their religion was limited to the single worship of 
Con and Pachacamac. 

Upon the introduction of the new religion, the Inca, its founder, 
incorporated it with cunning artifice into the prevailing religion. 
He declared to the nations that the Supreme Divinity was the 
Sun, without whom nothing could exist in the world ; that the 
gods Con and Pachacamac were sons of the Sun ; that he himself, 
the revealer of this doctrine, was a brother of these other, and conse- 
quently a son also of the Sun ; that his omnipotent father per- 
mitted him to incarnate himself and descend to the earth in order 
to teach men the arts and sciences and to instruct them concern- 
ing the will of the Supreme Being. 

The Sun was the Supreme Being whom the nation respected by 
erecting sumptuous temples wherein they offered most exquisite 
and costly sacrifices ; but the Inca, as a son of the god, was con- 
sidered as a personified deity — the immediate organ of the Su- 
preme Being, and entitled to the same homage with him.* 



* How much like the vainglorious sovereigns of the Old World, who would 



78 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. X. 



Faith in the immortality of the soul was one of the fundamental 
ideas among the Peruvian nations. They believed that after death 
the just went to a beautiful and pleasant place, unknown to the 
living, where they received the reward of their virtue, whilst the 
souls of the malicious were tormented in a doleful place filled with 
sorrow and fright ; and that after a certain time they should re- 
turn to their bodies, beginning a new terrestrial life, continuing the 
same occupations and making use of the same objects which they 
had left at the time of their death. This belief induced them to 
preserve the corpses with great care, and to bury the dead with a 
part of their clothes, their utensils, and sometimes with their 
wealth. 

The judge of the human race was, according to the belief of the 
Peruvians, Pachacamac himself, and in some provinces, Con ; they 
not being willing to believe that the Sun was to be considered as 
the Supreme Judge, notwithstanding the efforts made by the Incas 
to familiarize them with this opinion. 

The Peruvians also believed in another being, of evil disposition, 
and very powerful, animated with an inextinguishable hatred 
against the human race and disposed to injure them as much as 
possible. This being, was called Supay, and in some places was 
worshipped in temples wherein were sacrificed to him children of 
tender years. But Supay was subordinate to Pachacamac, and 
none could injure those who were protected by this beneficial di- 
vinity, the invocation of whose name alone was sufficient to ap- 
pease all malignant spirits. 

The worship of Pachacamac was much more widely extended 
than historians suppose, and we may safely say that he was the 
deity most popular and most respected by the Peruvian people 
generally ; whilst the religion of the Sun was that of the court, a 
worship which, although generally recognized by the Peruvians, 
never succeeded in eradicating their faith and devotion to the 
primary divinity. 

The Peruvian monarch, Pachacutec, knowing how imprudently 
it would be to openly oppose the worship of Pachacamac, suc- 
ceeded, with his customary cunning, in indirectly undermining it, 
and in amalgamating it with the Sun worship. His successors fol- 
lowed the same policy, and in a few years the worship of Pacha- 
camac fell almost into disuse. Finally the priests constructed a 
horrible idol of wood with a human face, thus personifying in the 
most profane manner the divinity who for so many centuries had 

' have their ignorant and superstitious subjects believe that they rule by divine 
favor — in fact, that they are the vicegerents and representatives of the deity on 
earth. 



CHAP. X.] 



OF AMERICA. 



79 



embodied the sublime thought and ideal conception of the Peruvi- 
an worship ; and they abused the idol to subserve their purposes, 
causing it to pronounce feigned oracles, and enriching themselves 
at the cost of the nation's credulity.* 

As sons of the Supreme Divinity the Inca enjoyed, even after 
death, general adoration. Their obsequies were celebrated with the 
greatest pomp and solemnity, and to their corpses were offered 
numerous sacrifices. The deceased monarch was embalmed with 
so much dexterity and skill that he seemed to be living, and in 
this state he was preserved entire centuries. His intestines, depos- 
ited in vases of gold, were preserved in the magnificent temple of 
Tambo, four leagues from Cuzco, while the body was seated upon 
a species of throne, in a natural position, before the figure of the 
Sun, in the principal temple of the capital. 

The body of Huayna-Capac was so well preserved that it seemed 
to be alive. The eyes were made of very thin gold, and so well 
formed that they seemed natural, and the whole body was pre- 
pared with a species of bitumen. There appeared on the head the 
scar of a stone thrown in war, and the long hair was visible, very 
hoary and perfect. He had died about eighty years previous. This 
mummy, with several others of the Incas, was brought from 
Cuzco to Lima. The bodies weighed so little that any Indian 
might carry them in his arms or on his shoulders from house to 
house of the gentlemen who wished to see them. They carried 
them covered with white cloths through the streets and squares of 
Lima, surrounded by the Indians worshipping them with tears and 
groans, and many Spaniards lifted their caps as they passed, be- 
cause they were the bodies of kings. Finally the mortal remains 
of these powerful and wise monarchs were interred in a court of 
the Hospital of Saint Andrew, in Lima.f 

The Peruvian deities are divided into deities of this world, and 
these again into stella and terrestrial; into historical deities, deities 
of the nation, or of the people; finally into deities of families or in- 
dividuals, similar to the lares and penates of the Romans. 

The Sun (Inti) was the god par excellence, the protecting 

* "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou 
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in 
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the 
earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them" Explicit as this is, 
yet there are persons who bow down to images and pictures. The idea of a supreme 
omnipotent being is blended with the basest idolatry and superstition by both 
civilized and savage peoples. 

f " Peruvian Antiquities " by Rivero, translated by the Rev. Dr. Hawks. 



80 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. X. 



deity, he who presided over the destinies of men, the origin of the 
royal family. To the Sun belonged the magnificent temples in all 
the cities, and in almost all the villages of the vast Peruvian terri- 
tory. Numerous were the priests destined for the service of the god, 
and by day, as well as by night, a certain number of the attend- 
ants were obliged to watch in turn in the temple, and to fulfil the 
prescribed offices. In some parts of the empire the priests main- 
tained a perpetual celibacy ; in others they were married, but 
while the fast lasted they abstained from all personal contact with 
their wives. The chief priest, Huillca-Uma, who was an Inca of 
the royal blood, and belonged to the sacerdotal society of the Sun, 
possessed the government of the other priests of the empire. He 
resided in Cuzco, and extracted auguries from the flight of birds 
and from the entrails of victims, in the presence of the Inca. At 
the solemn feasts the King himself in person was the high priest, 
for which purpose he was initiated and consecrated in all the 
mysteries of religion. 

There were virgins dedicated to the Sun, considered as wives of 
the god. These lived in cloisters or convents, in the greatest re- 
tirement. The most celebrated was Acllahuasi, in Cuzco, or house 
of the select ones, who were made such either from their lineage 
or for their beauty. This contained more than one thousand vir- 
gins. Those who could aspire to admittance w r ithin this sacred 
college were the maidens of royal blood. They were obliged to 
pronounce the vow of perpetual virginity and seclusion without 
the slightest connection with the world, or even with their 
parents. Not even the Peruvian monarch dared to tread within 
the precincts of the monastery, a privilege which was only, by 
reason of their sex, enjoyed by the queen and her daughters. 

The wife of the Inca who was convicted of adultery was subject 
to the same penalty as the virgin of the Sun who proved false to 
her vows. If she swore that the Sun himself was the author of 
her pregnancy, she was allowed to live until the time was accom- 
plished for her delivery, and was then buried alive.* The fruit 
of her union with the deity was reserved for the priesthood, or 
was destined to form a part of the sacred society of the virgins of 
the Sun, according to the sex. 

* The same penalty was inflicted on a vestal virgin for a like violation of her 
vow. Romulus and Remus were twins of a vestal virgin, and Mars was their 
father. It is probable that this Mars was some distinguished man who deceived 
the virgin. A case of this kind is related by Pausanius, and the destruction of the 
temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, was occasioned by the detection of a similar 
fraud of the priest. 



CHAP. X.] 



OF AMERICA. 



81 



The Moon, quilla, considered as the sister and wife of the Sun, 
was an object of profound respect, but the worship given to it was 
much more limited than that given to the Sun. Venus, Chasque 
Coyllur, was worshipped as a page of the Sun. Among the ele- 
mental deities were air, fire, lightning and thunder, and the rain- 
bow. The terrestrial deities were very numerous, and tfre Peru- 
vians sacrificed to all of them. They were the earth, hills, 
mountains, rocks of uncommon shape, the sea, rivers, lakes, etc. 
The chief of the historical deities, and one intimately connected 
with Peruvian history, was Viracocha, who more than once ap- 
peared in human form to the Inca of the same name, saying he 
was the son of the Sun and brother of Manco Capac. 

The Incas enjoyed, even after death, general adoration. Besides 
the Incas, the Peruvians also adored heroes in some of the prov- 
inces, and it seems that this worship originated before the Incas 
conquered their territories. The greater number of historical gods 
were Huacas, or gods of towns or provinces, of which there 
were made figures of stone or wood. 

The most interesting of the Huacas was found about two leagues 
from the town of Hilavi, on an elevated summit, where were found 
the sepulchres of Indians, of rich sculptured stone chambers. 
There was here a stone statue three times the height of a man and 
of magnificently sculptured stone, with two monstrous figures be- 
sides — one of a man who looked towards the west, and the other, 
with the face of a woman, on the same stone, at the back of the 
former, who faced the east. On both might be seen serpents, 
which were twined from the feet to the head, and about the soles 
of the feet there were gathered other reptiles and toads. In front 
of each one of their idols was a square stone of a span and a half 
in height, which seemed to serve as an altar. In order to break 
in pieces so valuable a monument, a Jesuit employed more than 
thirty persons for three days. 

The Huaca-Rimic, on the river Rimic, was also greatly cele- 
brated. It had a human figure, and was found in a magnificent 
temple, in which oracular responses were given to all questions 
put by the priests. Not only throughout the nation of the Yuncas, 
who occupied this valley (of Rimic), but through the entire sur- 
rounding country was this idol worshipped, and even from distant 
provinces deputies came with questions and offerings. From Li- 
matambo to Maranga there exists a great number of Huacas. 
some being more than fifty yards in length and about fifteen in 
height. 

Individual and family deities were innumerable. Each house 

6 



82 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. X. 



and individual possessed its characteristic and tutelar divinity. 
Among the former were the so-called Malquis, or manaos, which 
were the entire bodies of the ancestors reduced to a mummy 
or skeleton state, which the descendants piously preserved 
in the tombs, arranged in a manner that they might easily 
see them and offer them sacrifices. At the same time they gave 
them food and drink, for which they interred with them vessels 
and dishes, which they filled from time to time with food. They 
also placed at the side of the departed, in the sepulchres, arms, 
utensils and other spoils which they had used in life. Thus, if 
the deceased were a warrior, they interred with him implements 
of war ; if he were a workman, they buried with him signs of his 
trade; if a woman, they buried spindles, shuttles, cotton and wool. 

Under the collective name of Conopa, or Chanca, the Peruvians 
designated all the minor deities worshipped by single families and 
individuals, excepting those already mentioned in fields and 
canals. They counted several classes of them, although they ap- 
plied the names above mentioned particularly to individuals. 
Every small stone or piece of wood of singular form was wor- 
shipped as a Conopa. These private deities were buried with 
their owners, and generally hung to the neck of the dead. Some- 
times they are found made of metal, like a human figure, or with 
an allusion to some event in the life of the individual who wor- 
shipped them. 

The most esteemed Conopas were the Bozoar stone (quicu), and 
the small crystals of quartz rock (quispi or Llaca). Many and 
various Conopas are copied from the Llamas, Alpacas, Vicunas 
and Huanacas, and these idols are made of basalt, of black stone, 
of porphyry, carbonate of lime, granite, clay, silver, and even of 
gold. And among the Conopas was found the representation of a 
sheep in silver, so well soldered that with difficulty only could the 
union of the different parts be perceived. They also worshipped 
as Conopas deer, monkeys, mountain cats, parrots, lizards, fishes, 
etc., which they made of clay and hollowed out in the form of 
small vessels, which they interred with the dead, for the purpose 
of pouring into them the chicha of sacrifice.* 

* Nothing so degrades a people as idolatry. The more ignorant and supersti- 
tious they are, the more degraded they become ; the more degraded they are, the 
more subject they are to the influences of idolatry and superstition ; and this is 
the whole secret of the power of the priesthood of antiquity and of the hierarchical 
governments that then prevailed. Of course there is nothing of this kind in 
these enlightened days of modern times. Knowledge is light ; ignorance is 
darkness. They cannot exist together. 



CHAP. X.] 



OF AMERICA. 



88 



There were in Cuzco and other principal cities academies under 
the superintendence or direction of the Incas, to instruct the 
young disciples in all military and knightly exercises, as well 
theoretical as practical, and from them came the chiefs of the 
army. The representatives of the other sciences did not helong 
to the priesthood, but formed the separate class of the Amautas, or 
sages, who lived in these establishments of learning, Zachahuasi. 
The knowledge of the Amautas in mathematical science was al- 
most nothing. They had made but small progress in astronomy. 
The methods by which they discovered the exact time of the 
solstices is described by Garcelossa : 

They determined them by eight towers which they had erected 
to the east, and as many to the west, of the city of Cuzco, being 
ranked four and four in several positions, the two in the middle 
being higher than the other two at each end, and were built much 
in the form of the w r atch-towers in Spain. When the sun came to 
rise exactly opposite to four of these towers which were to the east 
of the city, and to set just against those in the west, it had then 
the summer solstice ; and in like manner, when it came to rise and 
set just with the other four towers on each side of the city, it was 
the winter solstice. 

To denote the precise day of the equinoctial they had erected 
pillars of the finest marble in the open area in front of the Temple 
of the Sun, which, when the sun came near the time, the priests 
daily watched and attended to observe what shadow the pillar 
cast; and, to make it more exact, they fixed on them a gnomon 
like the pin of a dial, so that as soon as the sun, at its rising, came 
to dart a direct shadow by it, and that at its height, or mid-day, 
the pillar made no shadow, they concluded that the sun had then 
entered the equinoctial line. The Incas and Amautas, having 
observed that when the sun came to the equinoctial these pillars 
made little shadow at mid-day, and that those in the city of Quito 
and those of the same degree to the sea-coast made none at all, 
because the sun is there perpendicularly over them, they con- 
cluded that the position of those countries was more agreeable 
and pleasing to the Sun than those in which in an oblique man- 
ner he darted his rays. 

The Amautas noted the movements of Venus, the only planet 
which attracted their attention, and which they venerated as a 
page of the Sun. They knew some few of the constellations. 
They were frightened at the eclipse of the sun and moon, partic- 
ularly at those of the latter planet, believing that it threatened to 
burst or explode upon the earth, and to avoid the danger they 



84 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. X. 



broke forth in frightful shouting, endeavoring to make all the 
noise possible, from the time the eclipse began, with instruments 
of all descriptions ; also beating dogs to make them howl and 
augment the general confusion. 

The entire lunation they divided into four equal quarters, be- 
ginning always with the first day of the new moon. Thus the first 
section or period lasted until the day of the fourth crescent ; the 
second until the apposition ; the third until the fourth decline ; 
and the fourth until the conjunction. They counted the months 
by moons, but the year from one winter solstice to another ; this 
they subdivided into twelve equal parts, forming thus a solar 
year. The time which remained from the end of the lunar year 
until the completion of the solar was called puchuc-quilla, or resi- 
due of the moon, and was devoted to leisure. They distributed 
the solar year into four seasons : spring, from the vernal equinox 
to the summer solstice; the summer, from the summer solstice to 
the autumnal equinox ; the autumn, from the autumnal equinox 
to the winter solstice ; and the winter, from the winter solstice to 
the vernal equinox. At each one of the four seasons they cele- 
brated a general solemn feast. 

The Peruvians did not divide the day into hours, and could not 
keep an exact astronomical account. 

The year was divided into twelve months, and began, accord- 
ing to some authors, in the summer solstice, at the end of June ; 
according to others, in the winter solstice, at the end of December. 
It is certain that in Cuzco it began with this latter month, and in 
Quito, according to the laws of the Inca, Huana-Capac, in the 
summer solstice. 

I will here interrupt the account of Peruvian astronomy, taken 
from "Peruvian Antiquities" by Tschudi and Rivero, to insert the 
following from "Antiquities of the West:" "There is an opinion 
among the Seneca nation of the Iroquois confederacy, living at 
this day* in the region south of the Lake Ontario, that eclipses of the 
sun and moon are caused by a Manitau, or bad spirit, who mis- 
chievously intercepts the light intended to be shed upon the earth 
and its inhabitants. Upon such occasions the greatest solicitude 
exists. All the individuals of the tribe feel a strong desire to 
drive away the demon, and to remove thereby the impediment to 
the transmission of luminous rays. For this purpose they go 
forth, and by crying, shouting, drumming and the firing of guns, 
endeavor to frighten him. They never fail in their object, for by 

* "Antiquities of the West" was finished January, 1820. 



CHAP. X.] OF AMERICA. 85 

courage and perseverance they infallibly drive him off. His 
retreat is succeeded by a return of the obstructed light. 

"Something of the same kind is practiced by the Chippewas, at 
this time, when an eclipse happens. The belief among them is 
that there is a battle between the sun and moon, which intercepts 
the light. Their great object, therefore, is to stop the fighting and 
separate the combatants. They think these ends can be accom- 
plished by withdrawing the attention of the contending parties 
from each other, and diverting it to the Chippewas themselves. 
They accordingly fill the air with noise and outcry. Such sounds 
are sure to attract the attention of the warring powers. Their 
philosophers have the satisfaction of knowing that the strife never 
lasted long after their clamor and noisy operations had begun. 
Being thus induced to be peaceful, the sun and moon separate, 
and light is restored to the Chippewas. 

" Now it is reported, on the authority of one of the Jesuit fathers 
of the French mission to India, that a certain tribe or people whom 
he visited there ascribed eclipses to the presence of a great dragon. 
This creature, by the interposition of his huge body, obstructs the 
passage of the light to our world. They were persuaded that 
they could drive him away by all the terrific sounds they could 
produce. These were always successful. The dragon retired in 
alarm and the eclipse immediately terminated." 

In each month of the year the Peruvians held feasts, but the 
principal ones related to the Sun, and they celebrated the sol- 
stices and the equinoxes. The most solemn of all was the sum- 
mer solstice. 

This feast was in token of gratitude and thankfulness for the 
benefits which the nation enjoyed, and was solemnized through- 
out all the countries governed by the Incas. There were assem- 
bled at it the chiefs and princes of the empire ; those who could 
not attend sent their sons or relatives, with the most noble lords 
of the territory. The multitude was innumerable. From the 
neighboring provinces women were sent to dress the food of the 
multitudes, and chiefly to knead a species of cake of boiled corn, 
called zancu, and eaten only at the solemn feasts. The feast was 
preceded by three days of religious fasting, during which time 
the only food consisted of a little white raw corn and a certain 
herb called chucan. At the same time no fire was permitted to 
be kindled in any house. The first sacrifice consisted generally of 
a young black llama. The priest opened with the sacred knife the 
left side and tore out the heart, with the lungs and throat, and 
found an omen for the future. 



86 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. X. 



The augural holocaust over, the priest made a general sacrifice 
to the Sun, which consisted of a large number of llamas and al- 
pacas, which they beheaded, offering their hearts to the Sun, and 
burning the entrails of the victims until they were reduced to 
ashes, and the flesh was roasted and dressed, with other food. 

The second principal feast, called Situa, was solemnized at 
the autumnal equinox, and was preceded by a feast, which took 
place the day of the new moon before the fast. The night be- 
fore, they prepared in all the houses zancus, a portion of which was 
mixed with human blood, taken from children five or six years 
old by means of a sharp-pointed stone. A few hours before break- 
fast all those who had fasted washed themselves and took a little of 
the potion, mixed with blood, rubbing with it their whole body, 
in order to dissipate all infirmities. With the same material the 
head of each house rubbed the thresholds, leaving a part stuck 
there, in commemoration. In the royal palace the oldest uncle of 
the king performed this ceremony, and in the temples of the Sun 
the High Priest, and other priests, deputed for that purpose, in the 
other sacred houses. 

Upon the rising of the sun the people assembled in the desig- 
nated squares to adore the deity, entreating it to expel all evils 
and infirmities. Then, at an hour appointed, on the morrow, 
there came out of the fortress Sacsahuaman (at Cuzco) an Inca as 
a messenger of the Sun, richly arrayed, his mantle girded to his 
body, a lance, with a little banner of feathers, in his hand, and ran 
until he reached the middle of the principal square, where he was 
waited for by four Incas similarly clothed. Upon reaching them 
he touched their lances with his, telling them that the Sun com- 
manded that they should expel from the city and its environs all 
ills and infirmities. At the same time the four Incas departed 
for the four quarters of the globe by the four royal roads which 
proceeded from this square, and ran a quarter of a league to a spot 
where others were waiting for them, already prepared to continue 
the service ; and in this manner, their places re-occupied by fresh 
substitutes, they traversed the road for six leagues beyond the 
city in the four principal directions, the Incas keeping their lances 
at rest, as if to put an end to all the evils which they pretended to 
drive away. While they were thus running, the whole population 
of the city and neighboring places came out to the doors of their 
houses, shaking, with loud exclamations and outcries, their clothes, 
and rubbing their bodies with their hands, in token that they wished 
to tear out all the evils and give them to the Incas to be destroyed. 
At night, after the feast, the Indians sallied out with torches bound 



CHAP. X.] 



OF AMERICA. 



87 



around with straw and fastened by coarse ropes, and ran, shaking 
them, through the streets until they were out of the city, extin- 
guishing them by throwing them into the rivulets, pretending 
thus to destroy all nocturnal evils. 

April. — In this month began the corn harvest. Agrihuay, the 
Peruvian name for this month, signifies an ear of corn with grains 
of different colors. There were premiums prepared for those who 
met with certain colors in the grains of full ears. He who re- 
ceived the premium was celebrated throughout the nation. 

May, or Aymuray — Thus called because of the conveying of the 
corn to the public depositories and granaries, which took place 
in this month. 

March 2d occurred the second principal feast of the year, 
preceded by three days of fasting, and it was the memorable feast 
of the renovation of the sacred fire. On the day of the equinox 
the Inca waited, accompanied by all the priests and chief lords of 
the court, at the entrance of the chief temple, for the rising of 
the sun, and by means of a metallic mirror concentrated its first 
rays, setting fire with them to a piece of sacred cotton picked and 
prepared for the purpose. This substance was carried while 
burning to the temple, where the sacrifice and offerings to the 
Sun were made, and afterward it furnished fire to all the houses. 
When the sun was obscured they obtained fire by friction. 

October. — They celebrated the solemn feast of the commemo- 
ration of the dead with tears, lugubrious songs and plaintive 
music, and it was customary to visit the sepulchres of relations 
and friends, and leave in them food and drink. It is worthy of 
remark that this feast was celebrated among the ancient Peruvians 
at the same period and on the same day that the Christians sol- 
emnized the commemoration of the dead (2d of November). 

In November took place the feast in commemoration of the 
termination of the year and the end of seed-time. A solemn day 
throughout the province of Cuzco was one on which the Incas and 
all the cavaliers of the court went out to the field and pierced the 
earth, after the manner of the Chinese emperors, with an instru- 
ment of gold, which corresponded to the plow. The magnates 
followed the example of the Inca, and this ceremony inaugurated 
the cultivation of the earth. 

These feasts continually followed each other, so that, in a word, 
we may say almost half the year was passed in festivals. The 
offerings which the Indians presented to the Sun and other deities 
consisted of that which was produced both by nature and by art. 
The most ordinary sacrifices were of llamas, principally to the 



88 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. X. 



Sun. An accurate calculation demonstrates that in the single city 
of Cuzco there were beheaded annually some two hundred thou- 
sand llamas in honor of the Sun. Alpacas, Vicunas and Huana- 
cas were also victims offered to the Sun or to the Huacas. The 
fat of all these animals formed one of the most precious objects 
of the offering. 

At times the offering consisted of human victims. The quantity 
of these victims reached a very frightful number, and consisted 
principally of children of tender years, which they sacrificed to 
the Sun, and it was no unusual thing to sacrifice two hundred at 
one time. At the death of an Inca or a principal chief they in- 
terred with the deceased his servants and his women. It is said 
that at the obsequies of Huana-Capac more than one thousand 
men were thus sacrificed. 

Their limited knowledge of astronomy did not permit the Peru- 
vians to make any progress in navigation. In their feeble vessels, 
constructed of bamboo logs, a balsa — a raft with a mast, and skins 
of sea-wolves or mats of rushes for sails, fitted to explore the coast 
of their territory and interior lakes — they did not dare to launch 
out into the open sea. It is worthy to notice that which is 
referred to by Signor Castelneau, that the mat or rush sails which 
they made use of in the lake of Titicaca and the mode of taking 
them in is identical with that which is seen upon the sepulchre of 
Rameses III. in Thebes.* 

* When Columbus, in the year 1502, arrived at the island of Guanaja, a few 
leagues from the coast of Honduras, his brother, Bartholomew, with two 
launches full of people, landed on the island, and while on shore beheld a great 
canoe arrive, as from a distant and important voyage. He was struck with its 
magnitude and contents. It was eight feet wide and as long as a galley, though 
formed of the trunk of a single tree. In the centre was a kind of awning or 
cabin of palm leaves, after the manner of those in the gondolas of Venice, and 
sufficiently close to exclude both sun and rain. Under this sat a cacique, with 
his wives and children. Twenty-five Indians rowed the canoe, and it was filled 
with all kinds of articles of the manufactured and natural productions of the 
adjacent countries. It is supposed that this bark came from the province of 
Yucatan, which is about forty leagues from this island. 

Among the various articles in this canoe he saw utensils and weapons much 
superior to those, similar, which he had already found among the natives. There 
were copper hatchets for cutting wood, wooden swords, with channels on each 
side of the blade in which sharp flints were firmly fixed by cords made of the 
intestines of fishes. There were copper bells and other articles of the same 
metal, together with a rude kind of crucible in which to melt it ; various vessels 
and utensils neatly formed of clay, of marble and of hard wood ; sheets and 
mantles of cotton, worked and dyed of various colors ; great quantities of cacao, 
a fruit which the natives held in great estimation, using it both as food and 



CHAP. XI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



89 



CHAPTER XL 

Peru — Guaquas — Copper Axes — Temples — Fortresses — Pucaras — Burials 
— Tombs — Mummies. 

The Peruvians consecrated works to posterity ; the fields are 
full of them, either near the burgs or villages or on the plains, on 
the mountains, and on the hills. They liked, as the ancient 
Egyptians, to be buried in remarkable places, which caused the 
latter to build pyramids, in the middle of which were their sepul- 
chres, where was deposited their corpse, embalmed. In the same 
manner the Indians, after having carried the corpse to the place 
where it was to repose, without interring it, they surrounded it 
with many stones and with bricks, with which they built for it a 

money. There was also a beverage extracted from Indian corn, resembling- 
beer. Their provisions consisted of corn-bread and roots of various kinds. 
The women wore mantles, with which they wrapped themselves, like the female 
Moors of Granada, and the men had cloths of cotton round their loins. Both 
sexes appeared more particular about these coverings and to have a quicker 
sense of modesty than any Indians Columbus had yet discovered. These cir- 
cumstances, together with the superiority of their implements and manufactures, 
were held by the Admiral as indications that he was approaching more civilized 
nations. They informed him that they had just arrived from a country rich, 
cultivated and industrious, situated to the west. — Irving. 

Bartram gives the following account of the canoes and navigation of the 
Florida Indians in 1774 : 

"The town of Talahasochte is on the banks of the Little San Juan. The 
river at the town is about a hundred yards over, and fifteen or twenty feet deep. 
The town is delightfully situated on the elevated east bank of the river, the 
ground level to near the river, when it descends suddenly to the water. I sup- 
pose the perpendicular elevation of the ground may be between twenty and thirty 
feet. 

"These Indians have large, handsome canoes, which they form out of the 
trunks of cypress trees, some of them commodious enough to accommodate 
twenty or thirty warriors. In these large canoes they descend the river, on 
trading and hunting expeditions, to the sea-coast, neighboring islands and keys, 
quite to the point of Florida, and sometimes across the gulf, extending their 
navigation to the Bahama islands and even to Cuba. A crew of these adven- 
turers had just returned from Cuba, but a few days before our arrival, with a 
cargo of spirituous liquors, coffee, sugar and tobacco. One of them politely 
presented me with a choice piece of tobacco, which he told me he had received 
from the governor of Cuba. 

"They deal in the way of barter, carrying with them deer-skins, furs, dry 
fish, beeswax, honey, bear's oil and some other things." — Bartram, 222-225. 



90 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XI. 



kind of mausoleum, on which those who were the dependants of 
the defunct cast so great a quantit}' of earth that the mausoleum 
was changed to an artificial hill, which they called guaqua. The 
figure of these guaquas is not exactly pyramidal. It appears 
rather that these people had in view to imitate nature in the figure 
of mountains and hills. Their ordinary height was from eight to 
ten toises, which are twenty-three ells. Their length is from 
twenty to twenty-six toises, or forty-three to fifty-eight ells, by a 
little less in width. There are, however, some much greater. Al- 
though they find these sorts of monuments in all the country, 
there is nevertheless a greater quantity of them in the district of 
the village of Cayamba, the plains of which are all strewn with 
them, because these people had there one of their greatest tem- 
ples, and because they regarded as sanctified all the fields in its 
vicinity. It is wherefore the kings and caciques of Quito wished 
to be buried there, and, in imitation of them, also the caciques of 
the neighboring villages. 

The differences which are remarked in the size of these monu- 
ments give reason to believe that they were proportioned to the 
dignity, rank and riches of the persons buried in them, it not 
being doubtful that the guaquas of the caciques of the first order, 
who had under their rule a great number of vassals who assisted 
at their funeral, ought naturally all contribute to make for him 
a guaqua more considerable than that of a private person, who 
had but his family and friends to heap dirt over him. All were 
buried with their furniture and effects for their use, as well of gold 
as of copper, stones and clay. In the most of these guaquas they 
find but the skeleton of him who was buried there, the earthen 
vases out of which he drank chicha, which they call at present 
guaguerres, some copper axes, mirrors of inca-stone, and other 
like things of little value, although curious otherwise, and worthy 
of attention on account of their antiquity and having been made 
by a nation so little cultivated. 

These Indian axes of copper scarcely differ from ours in their 
form. It appears that they performed the most of their work 
with these axes; since, if they are not the only trenchant instru- 
ment they had, it is that which is most commonly found among 
them, not having any other difference except that some are 
larger than others. There are some that have a round blade, and 
more or less long; some are crenated, others have a point on the 
side opposite to the blade, with a twisted handle by which they 
handled it. The most general material of these instruments is 
copper ; however there are some of Gallinace stone, or of another 



CHAP. XI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



91 



stone much like flint, although not so hard nor so neat. Of 
this stone and of that of Gallinace there are found points cut on 
purpose, of which they make use instead of lancets. These are 
the two instruments, and perhaps the only two, which have been 
used among them. If they have had others of them it is sur- 
prising that they have not found some of them in the great num- 
ber of guaquas where they have excavated, and where they still 
excavate everyday.* 

These copper axes were not peculiar to Peru, for Diaz in relating 
the voyage in which Grijalva discovered Mexico, says : "As soon 
as the inhabitants of Guacasualco and the neighboring districts 
had learned that we offered our goods for barter, they brought us 
all their golden ornaments and took in exchange green glass beads, 
on which they set a high value. Besides ornaments of gold, every 
Indian had with him a copper axe, which was very highly pol- 
ished, with the handle curiously carved, as if to serve equally for 
an ornament as for the field of battle. At first we thought these 
axes were made of an inferior quality of gold ; we therefore com- 
menced taking them in exchange, and in the space of two days 
had collected more than six hundred. The inhabitants of this 
district were all very much pleased with us and embraced us at 
our departure. 

" We set sail for Cuba and arrived there in the space of forty 
days. We were most friendly received by the governor. Diego 
Velasquez, who was highly delighted with the additional gold we 
brought him. The whole amounted to twenty thousand pesos. 
Some make this sum greater, some less, but one thing is certain : 
the crown officials only took the fifths of the last mentioned sum. 
When they were about to take this also of the Indian axes, which 
we had mistaken for gold, they grew excessively angry on finding 
them to be merely of a fine species of copper. Xor did this cir- 
cumstance fail to produce the usual laughter at' the expense of 
our trade of barter."f 

I now return to Uloa. "After having given the description of 
the guaquas of these idolatrous peoples, whose usage in this re- 
spect was not less common among the inhabitants of the southern 
provinces of Peru, I pass to the sumptuous edifices which they 
have built to serve as well for their worship as to lodge their sov- 
ereigns, and serve as a barrier for their country. And although 

* Uloa. 

t See note page 88, chap. x. It thus appears that copper axes were used in 
Peru, Mexico, and Central America. It is probable that copper was the first 
mineral that man converted to domestic use ; at least it preceded iron. 



92 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XI. 



these edifices have been less magnificent in the kingdom of Quito 
than at Cuzco, which was the capital of the empire and the resi- 
dence of the Incas, there nevertheless still remains enough of 
them to judge of the grandeur of the nation and of its inclination 
to architecture, as if they had wished to repair by sumptuous- 
ness and magnificence what they lacked on the side of science 
and taste. 

There is still seen the greater part of one of these works in the 
valley of Cayamba. These are the remains of a temple [8] of un- 
baked brick. It is situated on an elevated land of the same vil- 
lage, which forms a kind of hillock. The figure of the edifice is 
round, about eight toises in diameter, which make eighteen or 
nineteen ells, by about sixty ells in circumference. There remain 
of this edifice but the plain walls, which still have a height of 
about two toises and a half, or five to six ells, by four or five feet 
in thickness. The bricks are united by the same earth of which 
they have been made, and the whole forms a wall as solid as if it 
were of stone, since it resists the injuries of the weather, to which 
it is exposed for want of a covering. 

Besides the tradition by which they know that this edifice was 
a temple, the manner in which it is constructed does not permit 
a doubt of it; in fact, its round form, without any partitions 
within, shows sufficiently that it was a place of public assembly, 
and not a private dwelling. The door is very small, and gives 
occasion to believe that the Inca entered here on foot through re- 
spect for the place, although into their palaces and ever} 7 where else 
they entered always seated on a chair. Besides, it is certain that 
in the vicinity of Cayamba they had one of their largest, principal 
temples. It seems therefore that this cannot be but it. 

In the plain which extends from Latacunga towards the north 
there is still seen the walls of one of the palaces of the Incas and 
Kings of Quito, which is called Callo, [9] a name which still re- 
mains to it. There is seen in them neither the beauty nor the 
grandeur of the edifices of the Egyptians, the Romans or other 
peoples; but in regard to the limited knowledge of the Indians, 
and in comparison with their other habitations, we fail not to see 
there grandeur, sumptuosity, and finally something that announces 
the majesty of the monarchs who made their residence there. They 
enter there by an alley five or six toises long, which leads to a court 
around which are three great saloons, which form of it a square, 
occupying the three sides. In each of these rooms there are par- 
titions, and behind that which faces the entrance there are divers 
little recesses which appear to have been for fuel, except one which 




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CHAP. XI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



93 



served as a menagerie, for we still see the partitions where each 
animal was kept. The ancient work is a little disfigured, althoughi 
the principal parts still exist as they were. But in these latter 
times they have built habitations there, and have changed the 
arrangements of the apartments which were there. 

This building is all of a stone which resembles, in its hardness, 
the flint, and of a color almost black, and so closely joined that 
the point of a knife cannot be inserted between them, their joints 
being as fine as the thinnest leaf of paper, and only appearing 
enough to judge that the wall is not entirely of one piece. It is seen 
that neither mortar nor cement joins them ; that outside they are all 
convex, but at the entrance of the doors they are flat. There are 
seen inequalities not only in the ranges of stones but in the stones 
themselves, and it is what renders the work so much the more 
singular, for a small stone is immediately followed by one large and 
badly squared, and that on top is nevertheless accommodated to 
the inequalities of those there, and even to the projections and 
irregularities of their faces, the whole so perfect, that from all sides 
that we may regard them, we see them joined with the same ex- 
actness. These walls are as high as those of the temple of Ca- 
yamba, two toises and a half, by three or four feet of thickness ; and 
the doors two toises, which make about five ells, by three or four 
feet wide below, and gradually narrow to the top to two feet and 
a half. They gave to them this excessive height that the monarch 
might pass there in his chair, the shafts of which were borne upon 
the shoulders of the Indians ; and that he might enter, in this man- 
ner, his apartment, which was the only place where he walked. 
We are ignorant whether this palace and others of the same kind 
had a story above the ground floor, and in what manner they were 
covered. Those which we examined either had no roof or had 
been covered by the Spaniards ; it appears, however, certain that 
their roofs were flat, and made of wood, supported by beams which 
extended from one wall to another. There were no marks on the 
principal walls that could cause a belief that they had sustained 
the wood-work. On these roofs, thus made flat, they formed, appar- 
ently, some inclination for the water to flow off. The reason why 
they narrowed their doors above is, that they had not any knowl- 
edge of the use of arches ; and that they were obliged to make the 
lintels of their doors of a single stone ; and as they had not any 
idea of a vault, nor of the cutting of stones which served as a key 
to the vault, they have not found among their works anything 
that was arched or made like an arch. 

About fifty toises from this palace, towards the north, on which 



94 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XI. 



side is the door, there is a hill, called Panecillo de Callo, in the mid- 
dle of the plain, which appears quite extraordinary ; it is twenty-five 
or thirty toises, or fifty-eight to seventy ells high. It is round, 
like a sugar-loaf, so even on all sides that they believed it artificial, 
and so much the more so as the bottom of its slope takes on all 
sides perfectly the form of the same angle with the earth on which 
it is. They believe that it is a monument where lies some Indian 
of distinguished rank, and this opinion is so much the more proba- 
ble, as they were much inclined to raise guaquas, when the occa- 
sions presented themselves for doing so ; they add also that the 
earth has been taken from a neighboring ravine through which 
flows a little river, at the foot of the hill on the north side, but 
there is not any proof of that. It may be, also, that this hill has 
been nothing more than a watch-tower to discover what was pass- 
ing in the country, and to be able to put the prince in safety at the 
first alarm of the unexpected attack of any hostile nation, which 
happened very often. 

To the northeast of the village of Atun Cannar, or Great Cannar. 
about tw T o leagues distant, is a fortress and palace of the Incas [10]. 
It is the most complete, and the greatest and best built of all this 
kingdom. On the side by which they enter it there passes a little 
river, which serves it for a fosse, and on the opposite side it rises 
over a hill, b} T a high wall, which, as w 7 ell as the slope of the hill, 
makes the approach to it difficult. In the middle is a tower-like 
building of oval shape, which rises from the interior ground-plot 
of the edifice to the height of one and a half or two toises, but 
on the exterior side it rises above the hill six or eight toises. In 
the middle of the tourillon rises a square, in the manner of a don- 
jon, formed by four walls, the angles of which touch the circum- 
ference of the oval, and closes the passage between the two. In 
the middle of the donjon there are two small separate rooms, into 
wmich they enter by a door opposite the space which separates 
them. These two closets are kinds of sentry-boxes, having lit- 
tle windows, through w T hich the sentinel has a view over the 
country, and the tourillon itsell serves as a guard-house. 

From the side of the exterior superfices of the tourillon the 
wall of the fortress extends about forty toises to the left and twenty- 
five toises to the right. This wall then turns and forms divers 
irregular angles enclosing a spacious plot of ground. They enter 
there but by a single gate opposite the tourillon, and very near the 
little ravine which serves as a bed to the river. From this door they 
.enter a narrow alley where two persons can hardly pass abreast, 
and which leads directly to the opposite wall, where it turns 



The Palace and Citadel of the Incas. 




Ground Plax. 



CHAP. XI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



95 



towards the tourillon, remaining still the same width, and from 
there continuing to incline towards the ravine, and enlarging, it 
forms an open space before the tourillon. All along this alley they 
have at every three paces formed in the thickness of the wall of 
the fortress niches, in the fashion of sentry-boxes, and in the inte- 
rior wall, which forms the alley, two doors, which serve to enter two 
separate apartments, which appear to have served as barracks for 
soldiers of the garrison. In the interior enclosure, to the left of the 
tourillon, were divers apartments, the height, doors and distribu- 
tion of which show sufficiently that it was the palace of the prince. 
In all these apartments there are recesses, in the manner of ar- 
moires, the same as the two closets of the tourillon. The niches of 
the alley and the donjon have stones projecting six or eight 
inches by three or four in diameter, which served, probably, to 
hang the arms used by these peoples. 

All the principal wall, which is on the slope of the hill, and 
which descends laterally from the tourillon, is very thick and 
steep on the outside, with a platform within, and a parapet of or- 
dinary height. In order to ascend to the platform of the rampart, 
which ranges all around, there is but one stair, near the tourillon. 
All these walls, both within and without, are of a stone as hard, 
as polished and as. well joined as those of Callo. The same as in the 
palace, all the apartments are uncovered, and without floor or 
mark of having had one. 

There are found many other walls and ruins in all this country, 
as well on the plains as on the heights, but particularly in desert 
places, without any vestige of a town or other habitable place. 
They are all, with the exception of the three of which we have 
just spoken, of sun-baked brick or of ordinary stones of masonry, 
which causes a belief that it is the work of Indians before they 
had submitted to the Incas ; whereas the walls of Callo and of 
the two fortresses which we have just mentioned were built since, 
and after the best ideas that these princes could furnish them. 
The same in regard to the government and policy, introducing the 
arts with their laws among all these peoples whom they reduced to 
their obedience. The Indians give to all these remains of ancient 
edifices the name Inca-Perca, which signifies Inca walls. 

The people had another manner of fortifying themselves, of 
which there remain some vestiges. It was to dig a trench entirely 
around a mountain steep and elevated, not quite to the freezing 
degree, but nevertheless very high ; and to make there three or 
four redans at some distance from one another, within which they 
raised a small wall, breast high, to shelter themselves from the 



96 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[chap. XI. 



enemy, and repulse him with less clanger to themselves. They 
gave to these fortifications the name Pucaras. At the bottom of 
these ditches they built houses of unbaked brick or of stone, 
which served as apartments to lodge the soldiers destined to guard 
these posts. Fortifications of this kind were so common that 
there are few mountains where they are not found on their tops. 
On Pambamarca there are three or four of them, one of which 
was on the height where we had placed the signal for the measure 
of our meridian, and we found some upon all the other moun- 
tains. 

We noticed sometimes that the first ditch was so spacious in its 
circumference that it formed a circumvallation of more than a 
league ; each ditch had always, everywhere, the same depth and 
the same width. They differed, nevertheless, some in regard to 
the others. There were some that had two toises in width, and 
others that were less than one. Besides, they were always made 
so that the interior border was higher than the exterior by at least 
three or four feet, so as to have more advantage over the assail- 
ants.* 

The deceased Incas were deposited in the principal part of the 
Temple of the Sun, in Cuzco, embalmed and covered with their 
regalia dresses, with a rich sceptre in their .right hand. The 
Coya, or empress, was also embalmed and deposited in that part 
of the temple dedicated to the Moon. 

The kings of Quito, or Scyris, were buried in a very large sep- 
ulchre made of stones, in a quadrangular or pyramidal form, 
so covered with pebbles and sand that it formed a miniature hill. 
The door faced the east, was closed with a double wall, and only 
opened upon the death of one of them. We found in them em- 
balmed corpses arranged in order, with their royal insignia, and 
the treasures which the monarch had ordered should be interred 
with him. Over each one of them was found a cavity or niche 
where was found a hollow figure of clay, stone or metal, within 
which were small stones of divers colors and shapes, which de- 
noted his age, the years and months of his reign. 

The manner of burying the vassals was very different, and varied 
in each province. In some parts, principally at the south, the 
cavaliers of royal blood, curacas and other magnates, were de- 
posited in large vases of gold and silver, in the form of urns, her- 
metically sealed, which were found arranged in meadows, woods 

* "Voyage Historique de L'Amerique Meridionale," par Don George Juan 
et par Don Antoine de LTloa. 



CHAP. XI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



97 



and forests, as Gomera relates. We regret that we have not met 
with a single one of these urns, which were found in such abun- 
dance by the Spaniards, and of which we know nothing, not even 
the shape. Cieza de Leon says: "In order that the sepulchre 
should be made magnificent and spacious they adorned them 
with pavements and vaults, and put in with the deceased all his 
chattels, wives and servants, and a large quantity of food, and 
numerous pitchers of chicha, or wine, such as they were in the 
habit of using. And many of his servants, that he might not fail 
of attendants in another world, made holes in the grounds and 
fields of their master or lord, now dead, or in those places where 
he most enjoyed and feasted himself, and there they buried 
themselves, thinking that his soul would pass through these 
places and take them along for his future use or service. And some 
of his women, to give to his burial more importance and to remain 
in his service, would, even before his interment, hang themselves 
by their hair and so kill themselves." 

On the western declivity of the Cordilleras they used sepul- 
chres in the form of ovens, made of adobes, and in the Sierra 
they were constructed of stones, square or oval, or in the form of 
obelisks, as in the Punas of southern Peru, in the vicinity of the 
river Chucana, and between Pisacoma and Pichu-Pichu. 

A large number of the tombs are enclosed by flat stones one or two 
yards in height. The sepulchres built of adobe or stones, always 
contained the corpses of the principal families. The plebeian 
families were arranged in rows, or formed in a semicircle, in caves, 
fissures of rocks, or terraces formed of rocks. Sometimes they 
were buried in holes, around which the Indians heaped stones.* 

In whatever way they were buried, the ancient Peruvians arranged 
the corpses in a drawn-up posture, the face turned towards the west, 
with provisions of chicha, corn, etc., deposited in round earthen 
pots and other vases, that they might find food to sustain them. 
In the walls of the sepulchres which are made without doors, are 
found certain holes and conduits which lead from the surface out- 
side to vases within ; into these they empty the chicha on those 
fast-days which they solemnize in honor of their malquis. 

The corpses as they appear in the sepulchres are found envel- 
oped in much cloth, and, as it were, bundled up. We will de- 
scribe them as we found them in more than fifty mummies which 
we have uncovered. At first sight we distinguish nothing more 

* " Many of these tumuli are similar to those which are found in Asia and in 
North America." 

7 



98 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XI. 



than what seems a coarse statue, seated, in which nothing is visi- 
ble but a round head, two knees, and two feet of large appearance; 
a strong net of coarse thread, with meshes sufficient^ wide, is 
bound closely over a coarse mat of rushes, in which the corpse is 
wrapped. In the sepulchres of higher Peru are found mummies 
in mats of totoza (a particular species of rush on Lake Titicaca), 
in shape very similar to beehives, with a square aperture at the 
side of the face. On removing the mat you find a large roll of 
cotton, which envelopes the whole body from end to end, and 
secures two reeds or canes to the sides, and sometimes also a stick 
across the shoulders. After removing this roll, is seen a cloth of 
wool, red or parti-colored, which completely envelopes the mummy, 
at the lower part of which are one or two cloths of cotton, like 
sheets, fastened firmly, as the cloth is, around the corpse. Under 
these we find some small vases, ornaments, the hualqui with the 
coca, and, in the greater part of the mummies, a canopa of stone, 
clay, silver or gold, hanging from the neck. The internal cover- 
ing is a cotton cloth, quite fine, probably white originally, but 
tinged with a reddish-yellow by time, and sewed like the other 
coverings. This being removed, the corpse is seen naked, only 
the head enveloped in two or three rolls, the upper one of which 
is of a fine web, and almost always with threads of divers colors. 
The under one is narrower and thicker, sometimes made of 
rushes only, but ordinarily of a yellowish cotton. 

The position of the corpse is squatting; raising the knees to 
the chin, the arms are crossed over the breast, or supporting the 
head, so that the fists touch the jaws. The hands are generally 
fastened, and in most of the mummies there is a coarse rope 
passed three or four times around the neck, and we also see a 
stick which passes from the ground between the legs to the 
throat, and which serves to support the corpse more firmly. In 
the mouth is always found a small disk of copper, silver or gold*. 
The greater part of the corpses were sufficiently well preserved, 
but the flesh was shriveled and the features disfigured, the hair 
always perfectly preserved, that of the women artificially braided, 
but the black pigment or coloring matter had lost more or less 
of its primitive color and had become reddish. 

There is no doubt that the art of embalming was known to 
the Peruvians, but probably only to a certain class of Incas, who, 
holding it as a secret, exercised it upon the corpses of the kings 

* This remarkable coincidence with the mummies of Egypt is deserving of 
consideration. 



CHAP, XTI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



99 



and their legitimate wives only. It is certain that the corpses 
of the kings were incomparably better preserved than the others, 
in consequence of certain means used, and the assertion that this 
was a secret of the royal family is founded on the fact that there 
have been found no other artificial mummies than those of the 
kings and queens. Neither do we know what means the masters 
used to embalm them, nor what substances they used to avoid 
putrefaction and give a certain flexibility to the skin. To obtain 
a knowledge of this it would be necessary to submit one of these 
mummies to a chemical analysis. It is generally believed that 
the other mummified corpses, which are found by millions, as well 
on the coast as on the mountains, had been also embalmed, but 
it is a serious error, they being only natural mummies. On the 
coast the heated soil and calcined sand dry the corpses, and in 
the interior the pure cold air and the dry winds do the same 
thing. A corpse placed in a cave of the Sierra or in the sandy 
ground of the coast, under shelter from the voracity of the birds, 
will, in either case, be found at the end of months entire, not cor- 
rupted, but dried.* 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mexico — Aztec Migration — Teocallis — The Great Temple of Mexico — Mexicans 
Cannibals — The Teocalli of Cozumel — Of Sempoalla — The Victims of Sac- 
rifice — The Teocallis of Cholula— Their Destruction — The History of Cho- 
lula— Its Great Temple — Teocallis as Forts — The Capture of the Great 
Temple of Mexico— The Capture of the Teocallis of Sempoalla. 

The Aztecas, or Mexicans, who were the last people who settled 
in Anahuac, lived until about the year 1160 of the vulgar era in 
Aztlan, a country situated to the north of the Gulf of California, 
according to what appears from the route they pursued in their 
migration. Betancourt makes Aztlan twenty-seven hundred miles 
distant from Mexico. Boturini says Aztlan was a province of 
Asia. In several charts, published in the sixteenth century, this 
country appears situated to the north of the Gulf of California, 
and I do not doubt that it is to be found in that quarter, though 
at a distance from the gulf, as the distance mentioned by Betan- 

v When Almegro invaded Chili, in passing- over the highest mountains on 
the coast, some of his men on horseback were frozen — horse and man. Some 
months afterwards the horses and riders were found as they had been frozen. 



100 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XII. 



court seems very probable. The migration of the Aztecas, which 
is certain, happened, as near as we can conjecture, about the year 
1160 of the vulgar era. Torquemada says he has observed an arm 
of the sea, or a great river, represented on all the ancient paintings 
of this migration. I believe this pretended arm of the sea was no 
other than those representations of the universal deluge painted in 
the Mexican pictures before the beginning of their emigration. 
Boturini alleges this arm of the sea to be the Gulf of California, as 
he is persuaded that the Mexicans passed from Aztlan to California, 
and from thence, crossing the gulf, transported themselves to Culia- 
can ; but there being found remains of buildings, constructed by 
the Mexicans, in their migration, on the river Gila, and in Pimeria, 
and not in California, there is no reason to believe that they 
crossed the sea, but came by land to Culiacan.* 

Having crossed the Colorado river, they proceeded as far as the 
river Gila, where they stopped for some time, and where there are 
still remains of great edifices built by them on the borders of that 
river. From thence, having resumed their course towards the 
south-southeast, they stopped in about the twenty-ninth degree of 
north latitude, at a place, which is more than two hundred and 
fifty miles from the city of Chihuahua, towards the north-north- 
west, known by the name of Case Grande, on account of an im- 
mense edifice which, agreeably to the universal tradition of these 
people, was built by the Mexicans in their peregrinations. From 
hence, traversing the mountains of Tarahumara, and directing 
their course towards the south, they reached Huiecolhuacan, at 
present called Culiacan, situated on the Gulf of California. Here 
they formed a statue of wood, representing Huitzilopochtli, the 
titulary deity of the nation, and made a chair of reeds and rushes, 
called Teokpalli, a Chair of God, to transport it in. They choose 
priests who were to carry him on their shoulders, four at a time, 
to whom they gave the name Teotlamacazque, servants of God, and 
the act itself of carrying him was called Teomama, that is, to carry 
God on one's back. 

From Huiecolhuacan they came to Chicomoztoc, where they 
stopped. Hitherto all the seven tribes had travelled in a body to- 
gether ; but here they separated, and the Xochimilcas, Tepanecas, 
Chalchese, Tlahuicas and Tlascalans proceeded onwards, leaving 
the Mexicans there with their idol. The situation of Chicomoztoc, 
where the Mexicans sojourned nine years, is not known ; but it 
appears to be that place twenty miles distant from the city of Za- 

* The above embraces text and notes from Clavigero's "History of Mexico." 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



101 



catecas, towards the south, where there are still some remains of an 
immense edifice, which, according to the tradition of the Zacate- 
cas, the ancient inhabitants of that country, was the work of the 
Aztecas in their migration. Finally, in the year 1196 they arrived 
at the celebrated city of Tula, which is confirmed by a manuscript 
history in Mexican, cited by Botourini, and in this point of chro- 
nology other authors agree. 

In Tula they stopped nine years, and afterwards in other places 
eleven years, until, in 1216, they arrived at Zampanco, a consider- 
able city in the vale of Mexico. After remaining seven years in 
Zampanco they went to Tizayocan, whence they went to Tolpetlac 
and Tepeyacac, both situated on the borders of Lake Tezcuco ; but 
those in Tepeyacac, being harassed by a Chechemecan cacique, were 
forced, in 1245, to retire to Chapoltepec, a mountain situated on 
the western borders of the lake, hardly two miles distant from 
the site of Mexico. The persecutions which they suffered in this 
place from some chiefs made them, at the end of seventeen years, 
abandon it, to seek a more secure asylum in Acocolco, which con- 
sisted of a number of small islands at the southern extremity of 
the lake. 

Finally, the Mexicans having returned to Huitzilopochtli, they 
erected there an altar to their tutelary god. The day of the con- 
secration the king of Colhua and his nobility failed not to be 
present, not to honor the festival, but to make a mockery of it. 
The Mexicans- brought out four prisoners, and, after having made 
them dance a little, sacrificed them upon a stone, breaking their 
breasts with the knife of itzil, and tearing out their hearts, which, 
while yet warm and beating, they offered to their god. 

This human sacrifice, the first of the kind which we know to 
have been made in this country, excited such horror in the Col- 
huas, that the king sent orders to the slaves (the Mexicans) to de- 
part immediately out of that district, and go wherever the} 7 
pleased* The Mexicans willingly accepted their discharge from 
slavery, and directed their course northward, and came to Acat- 
zitzintlan, a place situated between two lakes, named afterwards 
Mexicaltzinco, which name is almost the same as that of Mexico, 
but not finding, in that situation, the conveniences they desired, 
they proceeded to Iztacaico. 

After having sojourned two years in Iztacaico, they finally 
came to that situation on the lake where they were to found their 

* "Slave" and "prisoner" were synonymous with the Indians, and as it was 
customary for these to adopt prisoners, and for weak tribes to incorporate them- 
selves with stronger ones, it is probable that the Mexicans, in this case, were an 
incorporated tribe, or adopted prisoners. 



102 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XII. 



city. There they found a nopal or opunta growing in a stone, and 
over it the foot of an eagle. On this account they gave to the place, 
and afterwards to the city, the name Tenochtitlan. All the his- 
torians of Mexico say this was the precise mark given them by 
their oracle for the foundation of their city. There is a great dif- 
ference of opinion, among authors, respecting the etymology of the 
word Mexico. Some derive it from Mitzli, moon. But Mexico 
signifies the place of Mexitli or Huitzilopochtli, that is the God of 
War, or Mars of the Mexicans, on account of the sanctuary there 
erected to him. The Mexicans take away the final syllable tli in 
the compounding of words of this kind. The co added to it is the 
preposition in. The word Mexicaltzinco means the place of the 
house or temple of the god Mexitli, so that Huitzilopocho, Mexi- 
caltzinco, and Mexico, the names of the three places inhabited by 
the Mexicans, mean the same thing, in substance.* 

A particular description of the great temple or teocalli (teo, 
god — calli, house) of the City of Mexico will convey a correct 
idea of all the principal structures of this kind in Mexico. 

These teocallis were in different places constructed of different 
materials — stone, brick, or earth ; some had ramps, with steps 
leading directly to the top, where, in small sanctuaries, were the 
idols to which they sacrificed human beings on a stone in front 
of the sanctuary, ripping out the heart of the living victim and 
presenting it on the altar of the god. Others had three or four 
terraces, each extending the circuit of the teocalli, excepting the 
space occupied by the steps. The stairs to ascend from one ter- 
race to another w T ere all at the same side and angle of the teocalli, 
so that it was necessary to make the circuit of the teocalli to pass 
from one flight of steps to the next. These structures were in- 
closed with a wall, at a sufficient distance from the temple to form 
around it a commodious rectangular court, in the middle of the 
four sides of which was a gate. 

These structures were not peculiar to Mexico. They are found 
at Cahokia, in Illinois ; at Selzertown, in Mississippi ; at Macon 
and near Cartersville, in Georgia ; besides, in all probability, at 
many other places, as at the great mounds of Marietta, Ohio ; of 
Grave Creek, Virginia ; of New Madrid, Missouri ; of Trinity, 
Louisiana ; of Bolivar County, Mississippi ; on the Savannah 
river, opposite Silver Bluff; on the upper branches of the Savan- 
nah river, etc., etc. And this appears confirmed by the arrange- 
ment of these mounds, which indicate that they were of the same 
origin and destiny as the teocalli. This probability is still fur- 



* Clavigero. 




la 



CHAP. XII.] OF AMERICA. 103 

ther confirmed by the costume of the mummies discovered in 
Tennessee and in Kentucky, which showed that the inhabitants 
of that time were dressed as the Mexicans. 

The following is a description of the great temple of ancient 
Mexico, made from the accounts of it by Diaz, De Solis and 
Clavigero. 

Bernal Diaz thus describes the great teocalli of the City of 
Mexico : 

" We had already been four days in the City of Mexico. Cortes 
now determined to view the city, and visit the great market and 
the chief temple of Huitzilapochtli [11]. Montezuma resolved to 
accompany us himself, with some of his principal officers. Hav- 
ing arrived at a spot about half-way between his palace and a 
temple, he stepped out of his sedan, as he would have deemed it 
a want of respect towards his gods to approach them any other- 
wise than on foot. He leant upon the arms of the principal offi- 
cers of his court; others walked before him, holding up on high 
two rods having the appearance of sceptres, which was a sign 
that the monarch was approaching. He, whenever he was car- 
ried in his sedan, held a short staff in his hand, one-half of gold 
and the other half of wood. In this way he came up to the 
temple, which he ascended with many papas* On reaching the 
summit he immediately began to perfume Huitzilapochtli, and 
perform other ceremonies. 

" Our commander had proceeded to the Tlatclulco (the great 
market-place of ancient Mexico). 

" On quitting the market-place we entered the spacious yards 
which surround the chief temple. These appeared to encompass 
more ground than the market-place of Salamanca, and were sur- 
rounded by a double wall constructed of stone and lime. These 
yards were paved with large white flag-stones, extremely smooth, 
and where those were wanting a kind of brown plaster had been 
used instead, and all was kept so very clean that there was not 
the smallest particle of dust or straw to be seen anywhere. 

" Before we mounted the steps of the great temple, Montezuma, 
who was sacrificing on the top to his idols, sent six papas (priests) 
and two of his principal officers to conduct Cortes up the steps. 
There were one hundred and fourteen steps to the summit. When 
we had reached the summit of the temple we walked across the 
platform, where many large stones were lying, on which those 
who were doomed for sacrifice are stretched out. Near there 

* Papa, priest, father, probably was a name given to them by Diaz. 



I 



104 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XII. 



stood a large idol, in the shape of a dragon, surrounded by vari- 
ous other abominable figures, with a quantity of fresh blood lying 
in front of it. Montezuma himself stepped out of a chapel in 
which his cursed gods were standing, accompanied by two papas, 
and received Cortes and the whole of us very courteously. 

" This infernal temple, from its great height, commanded a view 
of the whole surrounding neighborhood. From here we discov- 
ered that the only communication of the houses in this city and 
of all the other towns built in the lake was by drawbridges or 
canoes. In all these towns the beautiful white-plastered temples 
rose above the smaller ones, like so many towers and castles in 
our Spanish towns ; and this, it may be imagined, was a splendid 
sight. On this occasion Cortes said to Father Olmedo, 1 1 have 
just been thinking that we should take this opportunity and ap- 
ply to Montezuma for permission to build a church here.' To 
which Father Olmedo replied, ' That it would be acting over- 
hasty to make a proposition of that nature to him now.' 

" Cortes then turned to Montezuma and said to him, by means 
of our interpreter, Dona Marina : ' I have now one favor to beg 
of you, that you would allow us to see your gods and teules.' 
To which Montezuma answered that he must consult his chief 
papa, to whom he then addressed a few words. Upon this we 
were led into a kind of small tower, with one room, in which we 
saw two basements, resembling altars, decked with coverings of 
extreme beauty. On each of these basements stood a gigantic, 
fat-looking figure, of which the one on the right hand represented 
the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. This idol had a very broad face, 
with distorted and furious-looking eyes, and was covered all over 
with jewels, gold, and pearls, which were stuck to it by means of 
a species of paste. Large serpents, likewise covered with gold and 
precious stones, wound round the body of this monster, which 
held in one hand a bow, and in the other a bunch of arrows. 
Another small idol, which stood by his side, representing its page, 
carried this monster's short spear and its gold shield, studded 
with precious stones. Around Huitzilopochtli's neck were figures 
representing human faces and hearts, made of gold and silver, 
and decorated with blue stones. In front of him stood several 
perfuming-pans with copal, the incense of the country ; also the 
hearts of three Indians, who had that day been slaughtered, were 
now consuming before him, as a burnt-offering. Every wall of 
this chapel and the whole floor had become almost black with 
human blood, and the stench was abominable. 

" On the left stood another figure of the same size as Huitzilo- 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



105 



pochtli. Its face was very much like that of a bear ; its shining 
eyes were made of tetzcat, the looking-glass of the country. This 
idol, like his brother Huitzilopochtli, was completely covered with 
precious stones, and was called Tetzcatlipuca. This was the god 
of hell,* and the souls of the dead Mexicans stood under him. A 
circle of figures wound round his body, representing diminutive 
devils with serpents' tails. The walls and floor around this idol 
were also besmeared with blood, and the stench was worse than a 
Spanish slaughter-house. Five human hearts had that day been 
sacrificed to him. On the very top of this temple stood another 
chapel, the wood-work of which was uncommonly well finished 
and richly carved. In this chapel there was also another idol, 
half-man and half-lizard, completely covered with precious stones. 
Half of this figure was hidden from view. We were told that the 
hidden half was covered with the seeds of every plant of this 
earth, for this was the god of the seeds and fruits. I have, how- 
ever, forgotten its name, but not that everything here was also 
besmeared with blood, and the stench so offensive that we could 
not have stayed there much longer. In this place was kept a 
drum of enormous dimensions, the tone of which, when struck, 
was so deep and melancholy that it has very justly been denomi- 
nated the drum of hell. The drumskin was made out of that of 
an enormous serpent ; its sound could be heard at the distance 
of more than eight miles. This platform was covered with a 
variety of hellish objects — large and small trumpets, huge slaugh- 
tering-knives, and burnt hearts of Indians who had been sacri- 
ficed — everything, clotted with coagulated blood, cursed the sight 
and created horror in the mind. Besides all this, the stench was 
everywhere so abominable that we scarcely knew how soon to get 
away from this spot of horrors. Our commander here said to 
Montezuma, 1 Allow me to erect a cross on the summit of this 
temple and in the chapel where stand your Huitzilopochtli and 
Tetzcatlipuca ; give us a small space, that I may place there the 
image of the holy Virgin ; then you will see what terror will seize 
these idols, by which you have been so long deluded.' 

" Montezuma knew what the image of the Virgin Mary was, 
yet he was very much displeased with Cortes' offer, and replied, 
in presence of two papas, whose anger was not less conspicuous : 
' I earnestly beg of you not to say another word to insult the pro- 
found veneration in which we hold these gods.' 

* It will be seen hereafter that the character of this god is differently repre- 
sented by Clavigero, who makes him the god of Providence, the Supreme 
Being, the Greatest of Gods. 



106 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XII. 



" As soon as Cortes heard these words and perceived the great 
excitement under which they were pronounced he said nothing 
in return, but merely remarked to the monarch, ' It is time for us 
both to depart hence.' To which Montezuma answered that he 
would not detain him any longer, but he himself was now obliged 
to stay some time, to atone to his gods for having allowed us to 
ascend the great temple, and thereby occasioning the affronts which 
we had offered them. ' If that is the case,' returned Cortes, I 
beg your pardon, great monarch.' Upon this we descended the 
one hundred and fourteen steps. 

" If I remember rightly, this temple occupied a space of ground 
on which we could have erected six of the largest buildings, as they 
are commonly found in our country. The whole building ran up 
in rather a pyramidal form, on the summit of which was the small 
towers with the idols. From the midde of the temple up to the 
platform there were five landings, after the manner of barbacans, 
but without any breastworks. The following is what' I learned 
respecting the building of this temple. Every inhabitant had 
contributed his mite of gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones 
thereto. These gifts were then buried in the foundations, and the 
ground sprinkled with the blood of a great number of prisoners 
of War, and strewed with the seeds of every plant of the country. 
This was done that the god might grant the country conquests, 
riches, and abundant harvests. Subsequent to the conquest of 
this large and strongly fortified city we found it to be a positive 
fact, for when new buildings were being erected on the place 
where the temple stood a great part of the space was fixed upon 
for the new church dedicated to our patron saint, Santiago, 
the workmen, in digging up the old foundations to give more 
solidity to the new ones, found a quantity of gold, silver, pearls, 
chalchihuis stones, and other valuable things.* A similar dis- 
covery was made by a citizen of Mexico, to whom also a portion 
of this space had been allotted for building-ground. Besides all 
this, the accounts of the caciques and grandees of Mexico, and even 
of Guatamozin himself, who was alive at that time, all corres- 

* Bernal Diaz, the last survivor of the followers of Cortes, or at least of the 
conquerors of Mexico, was, or endeavored to be, truthful in his 1 1 History of 
the Conquest of Mexico," and here gives evidence of it, for this event is men- 
tioned as he says, and related by Clavigero. It is hardly possible to make the 
different accounts of this temple conform with the movements and assaults of 
the Spaniards when they captured it, and yet this temple was the grandest and 
most public edifice in the city. The Temple of Jerusalem, built 2899 years ago, 
is better known than this Temple of Mexico. 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



107 



pond with my statement. Lastly, it is also mentioned in the 
books and paintings which contain the history of the country.* 

" With respect to the extensive and splendid courtyards belong- 
ing to this temple, I have said sufficient before. I cannot, how- 
ever, pass by in silence a kind of small tower standing in its im- 
mediate vicinity, likewise containing idols. I should term it a 
temple of hell, for at one of its doors stood an open-mouthed 
dragon, armed with huge teeth, resembling a dragon of the infer- 
nal regions, the devourer of souls. There also stood near this 
same door other figures resembling devils and serpents, and not 
far from this an altar, encrusted with blood, grown black, and 
some that had recently been spilt. In a building adjoining this 
we perceived a quantity of dishes and basins of various shapes. 
These were filled with water, and served to cook the flesh in of the 
unfortunate beings who had been sacrificed, which flesh was eaten 
by the papas. Near to the altar were lying several daggers and 
wooden blocks, similar to those used by our butchers to hack 
meat on. At a pretty good distance from this house of horrors 
were piles of wood, and a large reservoir of water, which was filled 
and emptied at stated times, and received its supply through 
pipes under ground from the aqueduct of Chapultepec. I could 
find no better name for this dwelling than the house of Satan. 

" I will now introduce my reader into another temple, in which 
the grandees of Mexico were buried, the doors of which were of a 
different form, and the idols were of a totally different nature, but 
the blood and stench were the same. 

" Next to this temple was another, in which human skulls and 
bones were piled up, though both apart ; their numbers were end- 
less. This place had, also, its appropriate idols, and in all these 
temples we found priests clad in long black mantles, with hoods 
shaped like those worn by the Dominican friars and choristers. 
Their ears were pierced, and the hair of their head was long, and 
stuck together with coagulated blood. 

" Lastly, I have to mention another temple, at no great distance 
from this place of skulls, containing another species of idol, who 
was said to be the protector of the marriage-rites of men, to whom 
likewise those abominable human sacrifices were made. Round 
about this large courtyard stood a great number of small houses, 
in which the papas dwelt who were appointed over the ceremonies 

* If some skilful diver, with modern appliances, should examine the hed of 
Lake Titicaca, in Peru, he would find an immense treasure there, where Peru- 
vian votaries for centuries deposited their valuable offerings, by casting them 
into the lake at a particular place. 



108 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XII. 



of the idol worship. Near to the chief temple we also saw an 
exceedingly large basin or pond filled with the purest water, 
which was solely adapted to the worship of Huitzilopochtli and 
Tetzcatlipuca, being also supplied, by pipes under ground, from 
the aqueduct of Chapultepec. There were also other large build- 
ings in this neighborhood, after the manner of cloisters, in which 
great numbers of the young women of Mexico lived secluded, 
like nuns, until they were married. These had also two appro- 
priate idols in the shape of females, who protected the marriage- 
rites of women, and to whom they prayed and sacrificed, in order 
to obtain from them good husbands. 

" Although this temple on the Tlatclulco was the largest in Mex- 
ico, yet it was by no means the only one, for there were numbers 
of other splendid temples in this city. I have to remark that the 
chief temple at Cholula was higher than that of Mexico, and was 
ascended by one hundred and twenty steps ; also the idol at Cho- 
lula stood in greater repute, for pilgrimages were made to it from 
all parts of New Spain, to obtain forgiveness of sins. The archi- 
tecture of this building was also different, but with respect to the 
yards and double walls they were alike. The temple of the town 
of Tetzcuco was also of considerable height, being ascended by 
one hundred and seventeen steps, and had broad and beautiful 
courtyards equal to those of the two last mentioned, but differ- 
ently constructed. Each province and every town had its own 
peculiar idols, which, however, never interfered with each other, 
and the inhabitants severally sacrificed to them. 

" Cortes, and the whole of us, at last, grew tired at the sight of so 
many idols and implements used for these sacrifices, and we re- 
turned to our quarters accompanied by a great number of chief 
personages and caciques, whom Montezuma had sent for that 
purpose.* 

" The idol temples were called cues, and were as numerous as the 
churches, chapels and monasteries of Spain. Every township had 
its own temples, which were filled with demons and diabolical 
figures.- Besides these, every Indian, man and woman, had two 
altars, one near to where they slept, and the other near the door of 
the house. In some provinces circumcision took place. 

" The Indians ate human flesh in the same way that we do that 
of oxen, and there were large wooden cages in every township, in 
which men, women and children were fattened for their sacrifices 

* Bernal Diaz, "Conquest of Mexico," translated from the original Spanish, 
by John Ingram Lockhart, F.K.A.S. 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



109 



and feasts.* In the same way they butchered and devoured all 
the prisoners they took during war time. The head, arms and 
legs were cut off, and, with the exception of the head, eaten at 
their banquets. No other part of the body was eaten, but the re- 
mainder was thrown to the beasts, which were kept in their abom- 
inable dens, in which there were also vipers and other poisonous 
snakes ; and among the latter, in particular, a species at the end 
of whose tail there was a kind of rattle. This last-mentioned ser- 
pent, which is the most dangerous, was kept in a cabin of diversi- 
fied form, in which a quantity of feathers had been strewn ; here 
it laid its eggs, and it was fed with the flesh of dogs and of human 
beings who had been sacrificed. "f 

The first mention of a teocalli is made by Diaz in his account of 
the voyage of Grijalva in the year 1518, when he discovered 
Mexico. This account is in his " Discovery and Conquest of 
Mexico," where he says: "Grijalva arrived at an island (San 
Juan d'Uloa) about two miles from the continent, where they 
found a temple on which stood the great and abominable-looking 
god Tetzcatlipuca, surrounded by four Indian priests dressed in 
wide black cloaks and with flying hair, who had that very day 
sacrificed two boys, whose bleeding hearts they had offered to the 
horrible idol." 

The Temple of Cozumel,X so revered by the Indians, was not far 
from the coast. It was of a square form, built of stone, and of an 
architecture not contemptible. The idol had the form of a man, 
but of an air so terrible and so hideous that it was easy to recog- 
nize in it the features of its original. All the idols adored by 
these wretched people had the same character of countenance ; for 
although they might be different in material and construction, and 
for representation, they all resembled each other in their abomina- 

* When Geronimo d' Aguilar, about 1511, was wrecked on his way from Da- 
rien to St. Domingo, and his boat carried by the current to Yucatan, he and 
those with him were seized by Indians and confined in a bamboo cage, to be fat- 
tened and sacrificed, at the feasts, to the Indian idols, Aguilar and Alonzo 
Guerrero, a sailor, remaining the last to be sacrificed. Guerrero one night suc- 
ceeded in extracting one of the bamboos, and he and his companion escaped. 
How singularly providential appears this adventure of Aguilar, who, after having 
lived eight years among the Indians, Cortes received at Cozumel, and had for 
his interpreter during his conquest of Mexico. 

f In regard to this poisonous rattlesnake laying eggs, it is said that snakes 
not poisonous lay eggs, while poisonous snakes are viviparous. [ shot a cotton- 
mouth snake, which is one of the most poisonous kind. The shot tore its body 
open, and out crawled four or five young snakes five or six inches long. 

X Cozumel, an island between Cuba and Yucatan. 



110 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XII. 



ble ugliness. The greatest effort of the skill of the workman con- 
sisted in the expression of the most hideous figure. 

It is said that this idol was named Cozumel, and that it had given 
to the island the name which it still preserves. When the Span- 
iards arrived at this temple they found a great concourse of In- 
dians there, and in the midst of them a priest whose equipage was 
different from that of the others by a certain ornament or kind of 
covering which hardly concealed his nudity. It seemed that he 
was preaching, or that he wished to persuade them of something, 
by the tones of his voice or very ridiculous gestures, for he gave 
himself the air of a preacher with all the gravity and authority 
that a man could have who showed all that even nature com- 
manded him to conceal. Cortes interrupted him, and, turning to 
the cacique, told him, " That to maintain the friendship that ex- 
isted between them, he must renounce the worship of his idols, in 
order to persuade his subjects to do the same thing from his ex- 
ample." The cacique requested permission to communicate this 
affair to his priests, to whom he left a sovereign authority to de- 
cide in matters of religion. This conference terminated in bring- 
ing to the presence of the general this venerable preacher, accom- 
panied by other persons of his profession, who all were bawling 
very loudly ; and these cries, explained by the interpreter, were 
protestations on the part of heaven against those who should be so 
rash as to destroy the worship which they rendered to their gods, 
declaring that they would see punishment immediately follow 
this attempt. These menaces only irritated Cortes ; and his soldiers, 
accustomed to interpret the expressions of his countenance, im- 
mediately comprehended his intentions, and fell upon the idol 
with so much ardor that it was cut in pieces in a moment, as. well 
as a great number of small statues placed in different niches 
around it, This fracas put the Indians in a terrible consternation ; 
but when they saw that the sky was very serene, and that the 
promised vengeance was much delayed, the respect which they 
had for their idol was turned into contempt. They were angry to 
see their gods so pacific, and this rage was the . first effect which 
the truth made in their hearts. The other temples or chapels met 
the same fate, and the largest being cleaned of all this debris of 
idolatry, they erected there an altar, upon which they put an image 
of the Holy Virgin ; and opposite the entrance to the temple Cortes 
caused to be erected a great cross, which was dressed by the car- 
penters of the fleet with as much zeal as diligence. The next day 
mass was said at this altar. 

It is worth noticing, here, the conversion of these heathen tern- 



CHAP. XTI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



Ill 



pies, as were several of the Roman, into Christian churches, as 
showing how one nation of a different religion makes use of the 
edifices of another ; and may it not be thus with the present abo- 
rigines of this country? May not these mounds, on which they 
erected these houses of worship, have been or have contained the 
temples of the nations who preceded them ? It will be seen, in the 
course of this account, that not only on this occasion, but on sev- 
eral others, heathen temples were converted into Christian churches. 

At Sempoalla, Cortes, having made the Indians sensible of the 
abuses of their false gods, finally told them that he had deter- 
mined to ruin all these images of the devil, and that if they 
would do with their own hands so sacred a work, he would be for- 
ever obliged to them. He wished to persuade them to ascend the 
steps of the temple, to go and pull down their idols ; but they re- 
sponded to this proposition only with their exclamations and their 
tears ; even so far that, casting themselves on the ground, they pro- 
tested that they would let themselves be cut in pieces rather than 
lay hands on their gods. Cortes would not insist more on a point 
which caused them so much pain ; he commanded his soldiers 
to do it, and they worked at it so willingly that in a moment 
there were seen flying in pieces, from the top to the bottom of the 
steps, the principal idol and all his suit, accompanied even with 
the altars and all the detestable instruments of this impious wor- 
ship. Some of these idols were shaped like furious dragons, and 
were about the size of young calves ; others with half the human 
form ; some again were like large dogs. The Indians witnessed 
the ruin with much emotion and astonishment. They looked 
upon one another as if they expected every moment the punish- 
ment which heaven should inflict for this action ; but as they saw 
the sky very clear, they very soon fell into the same ideas as the 
Indians of Cozumel ; for seeing their gods in pieces, without the 
power to avenge themselves, they ceased to dread them, and de- 
spised their weakness, as the people recognized, by the ruin of 
their powers, how much they were deceived when they made them 
objects of their adoration. 

This experience made the Sempoallans more docile and more 
submissive to the orders of Cortes, because, if till then they had 
regarded the Spaniards as men of a species far above themselves, 
they now found themselves obliged to avow that they were even 
above their gods. Cortes, knowing that he had acquired an ascend- 
ancy over their minds by this act, commanded them to clean the 
temple. This they did with so much joy and zeal that they cast 
into the fire all the pieces of their idols, in order to show that they 



112 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XII. 



were wholly undeceived. The cacique ordered his architects to 
wash the walls of the temple (in order to efface from them all 
the mournful blood-stains of the men sacrificed), who made a 
most beautiful ornament of it. They then gave it a coat of that 
" gez-gez" so white and so brilliant, of which they make use to 
embellish their houses ; and they built there an altar, where the 
image of the most holy Virgin was placed, decked with a great 
quantity of flowers and with some candles. The da}^ following 
they celebrated there the holy Mass, with all the solemnity that 
the time and place would permit.* 

The following, from Bernal Diaz, gives information in regard 
to the sacrifices at the City of Mexico. This scene took place, 
after the destruction of the Temple of Sempoalla, at Quiahuitzlan, 
built on the steep declivity of a rock : " We arrived in the midst 
of the town without meeting any one. On the most elevated 
point of the fortress there was an open space in front of the cues 
and large houses of their idols, and here we first met with fifteen 
well-dressed Indians, who were carrying perfuming-pans. With 
these they went up to Cortes, perfumed him and all who were 
near at the time, and bid us welcome.f 

" While the first welcoming was going on, it was announced to 
Cortes that the fat cacique of Sempoalla was approaching in 
a sedan supported by numbers of distinguished Indians. Imme- 
diately upon his arrival he renewed his complaints against Mon- 
tezuma, in which he was joined by the caciques of this township 
and other chief personages. He related so much of the cruelties 
and oppression they had suffered, and thereby sobbed and sighed 
so bitterly, that we could not help being affected. At the time 
when they had been subdued they had already been greatly ill- 
used. Montezuma then demanded annually a great number of 
their sons and daughters, a portion of whom were sacrificed to 
his idols, and the rest were employed in his household and for 
tilling his ground. His tax-gatherers took their wives and daugh- 
ters without any ceremony, if they were handsome, merely to sat- 

* From a French version of "De Solis," by the author of the "Trium- 
virate. ' ' 

t A ludicrous incident occurred on one of the voyages of Columbus to 
America. When he had landed at some place on the continent, the Indians 
approached him and prepared to perfume him, but when the Spaniards beheld 
the white powder that they sprinkled in the air, they, imagining it was some 
species of sorcery or enchantment, rushed at the Indians, who fled for their 
lives. Yet these superstitious Spaniards had hundreds of times seen similar 
ceremonies in their own temples, by their own priests. But the followers of 
Cortes were quite a different set of men from the sailors of Columbus. 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



113 



isfy their lusts. The Totanaques, whose territory consisted of up- 
wards of thirty townships, suffered the like violence. 

" We soon had proof of this on the very spot, for during our dis- 
course with their caciques some Indians belonging to the district 
announced that just then five Mexican tax-gatherers had arrived. 
At this information the caciques turned quite pale with fear. 
They left Cortes and hastened to receive the unexpected guests, 
for whom an apartment was immediately cleaned, and dinner set 
on table. As the house of the cacique was in the vicinity, the 
Mexicans passed by our quarters, but behaved with such reserve 
and hauteur that they addressed neither Cortes nor any of us. 
They wore richly-worked mantles, and maltatas similarly manu- 
factured, which were then and still are in fashion among them. 
The hair of their head was combed out quite glossy and tied up 
in a knot, in which were stuck some sweet-scented roses. Every 
one carried a stick with a hook, and had an Indian slave to keep 
off the flies. They were accompanied by a great number of dis- 
tinguished personages from the country of the Totanaques, who 
remained around them until they arrived at their quarters and 
had sat down to dinner. 

"Cortes, who observed how restless every one appeared, desired 
Dona Marina and Aguilar to explain the reason of all this, and 
who the strange Indians were. They answered that they were 
tax-gatherers of the great Montezuma, who had remonstrated with 
them for having received us without his previous permission, and 
now required twenty persons, of both sexes, for a sacrifice to the 
god of war, in order that he should grant them the victory over 
us. Upon this Cortes consoled them and bade them take courage, 
assuring them that he would punish the Mexicans for it, as both 
himself and his troops were willing and able to do so. As the 
Mexican tax-gatherers now required human beings of them for 
these sacrifices, he would take and keep them prisoners until 
Montezuma should learn the reason why he had done so. 

" When the Indians learned this astounding and, to them, so im- 
portant an occurrence, they said to one another that such great 
things could not have been done by men, but only by Teules, 
which sometimes means gods, and sometimes demons ; here in 
the former sense, which was the reason they termed us teules from 
that moment." 

What is remarkable in this account is the absurdity and incon- 
sistency of the conduct of these Indians, who sacrificed human 
beings on the altars to their gods and sold the flesh of their victims 
in their public markets ! 

8 



114 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XII. 



The following is an account of the Temple of Cholula: * 
Cortes having appointed the day on which he was to leave 
Tlascalla, the Tlascallans advised the general to go by Guajazingo, 
a plentiful and safe country, because the people of Cholula, be- 
sides being cunning and traitors, rendered slavish obedience to 
Montezuma, who had no subjects more submissive or more faith- 
ful. The Indians added : 

" That all the neighboring provinces of this town regard it as a 
holy land, because it embraced within its walls more than four 
hundred temples of gods so strange that they overwhelm people 
by the force of prodigies. That for these reasons it was too dan- 
gerous to pass through their lands without having some mark of 
their approval." 

The entry of the Spaniards into the town of Cholula was at- 
tended by all the circumstances of that of Tlascalla — a frightful 
concourse of people, which they pierced with difficulty, and deaf- 
ening acclamations. The town appeared so pretty to the Span- 
iards that they compared it to Valladolid. It was situated in a 
plain open on all sides, as far as the eye could view, and very 
pleasant. They say that it could contain then twenty thousand 
inhabitants, without counting those of the suburbs, which were 
of a greater number. There was a great resort of strangers to it, 
who came there either as to a sanctuary of their gods or as to a 
place celebrated by their commerce. The streets were well drawn, 
and the houses larger and of a better architecture than those of 
Tlascalla ; especially their sumptuousness was remarkable in the 
towers, which made known the number of their temples. The 
people were more wise than warlike, and the most of them mer- 
chants or officers ; many people, and few of distinction. 

The lodgings which they had prepared for the Spaniards con- 
sisted of two or three great houses, which joined each other, where 
the Spaniards and Sempoallans fortified themselves. The Tlascal- 
lans took a position a little distant from the town. 

The Tlascallan officers informed Cortes that the inhabitants 
meditated some treason. " It was learned, also, that in the most 
celebrated temple of the town they had sacrificed ten children 
of both sexes, a ceremony which they performed when they wished 
to undertake some warlike action. Two or three Sempoallans ar- 
rived at this moment; they had, in walking through the town, 
discovered by chance the trenches which the Cholulans had dug, 

* From a work which has on the title-page "Traducte de l'Espagnol de 
Dom Antoine de Solis, par l'Auteur du Triumvirat." 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



115 



and, moreover, observed ditches and palisades which the Indians 
had made in order to lead the horsemen direct to ruin." 

After this, Cortes informed the caciques who governed the city, 
and published, that he had decided to leave the following day. 
He demanded of the caciques provisions for his troops during 
their march, Indians to carry the baggage, and two thousand 
warriors to accompany him. 

The porters arrived in small numbers at daybreak, with some 
few provisions. The warriors came afterward in file ; the pretext 
was to accompany the Spaniards during their journey, but they had 
orders to attack the rear guard at a certain signal, when the op- 
portunity presented itself. The general had them posted sepa- 
rately in divers places of his lodgings, where they were, as it were, 
guarded; making them believe it was the method which the 
Spaniards observed when they wished to form their order of 
battle. In fact, he disposed his soldiers, well-informed of what 
they had to do. As for him, he mounted his horse with those 
who were to follow him ; after which he had the caciques called, 
in order to inform them of his decision. Some of them presented 
themselves; others excused themselves; and Marina told the 
former, by order of Cortes, that their treason was discovered and 
that they had resolved to chastise it, etc. Hardly had he de- 
clared the evils which were going to happen to them, when the 
caciques fled to their troops, and gave the signal of battle by in- 
sults and threats, which were heard at a distance. Then Cortes 
ordered his infantry to attack the Indians of Cholula whom he 
had kept shut up in many places of his quarters, and although 
they found them with arms in their hands, with the design of 
executing their treason, and they had made great efforts to unite, 
they were nevertheless cut in pieces, so that there only escaped 
those who could conceal themselves or leap over the walls by 
making use of their lances, and by their swiftness, which is natural 
to them. 

After they had thus secured their quarters by the slaughter of 
these covert enemies, they gave the signal to the Tlascallans, and 
the Spaniards advanced through the principal street, after having 
left a sufficient guard at the quarters. They detached some Sem- 
poallans that they might make known the trenches and the horse- 
men be able to avoid that danger. In the meantime the Cholu- 
lans were not negligent. The moment they saw the battle begun 
they sent for the rest of the Mexican troops, and after being united 
to them in the great square, where there were three or four tem- 
ples, they furnished its porticos and towers with a part of their 



116 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XII. 



soldiers, and divided the rest in several battalions, with the design 
of attacking the Spaniards, whose first ranks began to appear in 
the public square and mingle with the enemy, when the Tlas- 
callans fell upon their rear-guard. This unexpected attack threw 
them into such a great fright and such disorder that they knew 
not what to do, neither to escape nor to defend themselves. The 
Spaniards, finding no more obstruction and no resistance in these 
wretches, who flying one danger fell into another, without know- 
ing which was the greater, nevertheless the greater number escaped 
into the temple, the steps of which and the terraces were loaded 
with, rather than defended, by a multitude of armed Indians. 
The Mexicans had undertaken its defence, but they found them- 
selves so pressed by the crowd of inhabitants that rushed there 
in disorder that they could not turn, and hardly had they room 
to discharge a few arrows. 

The general approached in good order the largest of these 
temples, and ordered the interpreter to proclaim in a loud voice 
that he would give quarters to those who would descend and 
surrender. He caused this to be repeated three times, and as he 
saw that his efforts were useless, he ordered that they should set 
fire to the towers of this temple, and the authors assert that this 
order was executed with the greatest rigor, and that many Indians 
were miserably consumed in the fire, or crushed under the ruins. 
However, it appears that they could not easily put fire to these 
buildings, which were very high, before they had reached the 
steps of the temple, unless Cortes had made use of those inflam- 
mable arrows with which the Indians aided themselves in throw- 
ing their artificial fire. What there is certain is, that they could 
not dislodge the enemy from it until they had made use of their 
artillery ; and it was noticed as a surprising thing that of all 
those who were cut in pieces in this temple, there was not a 
single one who voluntarily surrendered to the Spaniards, which is 
a terrible indication of the obstinacy of these wretches. 

They attacked the other temples in the same manner, after 
which the soldiers spread themselves through the city, which was 
entirely destroyed, and the battle ceased for want of enemies. 
There remained in the streets of Cholula more than six thousand 
men slain, Mexicans and inhabitants, without it costing us a single 
man, so well the general knew how to conduct this action, which 
merits the name of chastisement rather than that of victory.* 

The ancient city of Cholula, capital of the republic of that 



* De Solis. 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



117 



name, lay nearly six leagues south of Tlascalla, and about twenty 
east, or rather south-east, from Mexico. It was unquestionably 
at the time of the Conquest one of the most populous and flourish- 
ing cities in New Spain. 

It was of great antiquity, and was founded by the primitive 
races who overspread the land before the Aztecs. Veytia carries 
back the foundation of the city to the Ulmecs, a people who pre- 
ceded the Toltecs. The state maintained its independence down 
to a very late period, when, if not reduced to vassalage by the 
Aztecs, it was so far under their control as to enjoy few of the 
benefits of a separate political existence. The Cholulan capital 
was the great commercial emporium of the plateau. 

But the capital, so conspicuous for its refinement and its great 
antiquity, was even more venerable for the religious traditions 
which invested it. It was here that the god Quetzalcoatl paused 
on his passage to the coast, and passed twenty years in teaching 
the Toltec inhabitants the arts of civilization. He made them 
acquainted with better forms of government, and a more spiritualized 
religion, in which the only sacrifices were the fruits and flowers of 
the season. It is not easy to determine what he taught, since his 
lessons have been so mingled with the licentious dogmas of his own 
priests and the mystic commentaries of the Christian missionary. 

It was in honor of this benevolent deity that the stupendous 
mound was erected, the most colossal fabric in New Spain, rival- 
ing in dimensions, and somewhat resembling in form, the pyra- 
midal structures of ancient Egypt. The date of its erection is 
unknown, for it was found there when the Aztecs entered in the 
plateau. It had the form common to the Mexican teocallis, that 
of a truncated pyramid, facing with its four sides the cardinal 
points, and divided into the same number of terraces. Its origi- 
nal outlines, however, have been effaced by the action of time 
and of the elements. A road cut some years ago across the 
tumulus laid open a large section of it, in which the alternate 
layers of brick and clay are distinctly visible. The perpendicu- 
lar height of the pyramid is one hundred and seventy-seven feet. 
Its base is fourteen hundred and twenty-three feet long, as long 
as that of the great pyramid of Cheops, and covers about forty- 
four acres, and the platform on its truncated summit embraces 
more than one. On the summit stood a sumptuous temple, in which 
was the image of the mystic deity, "god of the air," with ebon 
features, unlike the fair complexion which he bore upon earth, 
wearing a mitre on his head, waving with plumes of fire* with a 
* Figuratively, probably, for red plumes or feathers. 



118 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XII. 



resplendent collar of gold round his neck, pendants of mosaic 
turquoise in his ears, a jeweled sceptre in one hand, and a shield 
curiously painted, the emblem of his rule over the winds, in the 
other.* Pilgrims from the furthest corners of Anahuac came to offer 
up their devotions at the shrine of Quetzalcoatl.f 

Many of the kindred races had temples of their own in the 
city, in the same manner as some Christian nations have in Rome, 
and each temple was provided with its own peculiar ministers for 
the service of the deity to whom it was consecrated. J In no city 
was there such a concourse of priests, so many processions, such 
pomp of ceremonials, sacrifices and religious festivals. Cholula 
was, in short, what Mecca is among Mahommedans or Jerusalem 
is among Christians — it was the Holy City of Anahuac. 

The religious rites were not performed, however, in the pure 
spirit originally prescribed by its tutelary deity. His altars, as 
well as those of the numerous Aztec gods, were stained with 
human blood, and six thousand victims are said to have been 
annually offered up at their sanguinary shrines. The great num- 
ber of these may be estimated from the declaration of Cortes, that 
he counted four hundred towers in the city, yet no temple had 
more than two, many only one. High above the rest rose the 
great " pyramid of Cholula, with its undying fires, flinging their 
radiance far and wide over the capital, and proclaiming to the 
nations that there was the mystic worship — alas ! how corrupted 
by cruelty and superstition — of the good deity who was one day 
to return and resume his empire over the land."§ 

These teocallis were places not only for the performance of re- 
ligious rites, but also of refuge and defence. The Indians believed 
in their sanctity and their supernatural influence, As the Chris- 
tians at the capture of Constantinople fled to St. Sophia, for its 
miraculous protection, so the Indians of Mexico fled to a teocalli 
at the capture of that city by the Spaniards, believing that its 
sacred character would render it impregnable to the assaults of 
the enemy, but Cortes soon undeceived them by a few discharges 
of his cannon. 

* "A minute account of the costume and insignia of Quetzalcoatl is given by 
Father Sahagun, who saw the Aztec gods before the arm of the Christian 
convert had tumbled them from ' their pride of place.' " 

f "From the distance of two hundred leagues," says Torquemada. 

% It appears that all, or almost all, heathen nations were tolerant of religious 
rites and creeds. Home, Greece, and Egypt were stocked with idols and deities 
of various kinds. 

§ Prescott's "History of the Conquest of Mexico." 



CHAP. XII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



119 



When the Mexicans attacked Cortes and his men in the City of 
Mexico, they took possession of the great temple, to the loftiest 
and most considerable tower of which nearly five hundred In- 
dians, apparently persons of rank, ascended. This teocalli had, 
according to Cortes's letter, three or four terraces, about a yard 
wide, and were about sixteen feet one above another. This would 
make the height of this teocalli sixty-four feet. He says : " So 
arduous was the attempt to take this tower, that if God had not 
broken their spirits twenty of them would have been sufficient to 
resist the ascent of a thousand men, although they fought with 
the greatest valor." 

De Solis thus describes the capture of it by the Spaniards : " The 
morning following the day on which the obsequies of Montezuma 
were celebrated, by daybreak all the streets in the neighborhood 
were occupied and garrisoned by the Indians, the towers of the 
great temple, which was a little distance from the quarters, com- 
manding a part of the edifice within reach of their slings and 
arrows, a position which Cortes would have fortified if he had had 
sufficient forces to divide them. 

The ascent to the top of this temple was by a hundred steps. 
They had lodged in it as many as five hundred soldiers, selected 
from among the Mexican nobles, so determined to maintain it 
that they had provided themselves with arms and provisions for 
many days. 

Cortes found himself obliged to dislodge the enemy from so 
advantageous a position, and to accomplish it he drew the greater 
part of his men outside of the ramparts, divided into squadrons, 
and committed the attack to Captain Escobar with his company 
of a hundred select Spaniards. Escobar attacked and took the 
lower portico and a part of the steps, for the Indians intention- 
ally allowed them to approach them that they might better attack 
them nearer; and on seeing the opportunity they covered the 
ramparts with men, and discharged their arrows and darts with 
so much vigor and concert that they compelled him to stop and 
order that they should use their arquebuses and cross-bows 
against those who showed themselves ; but it was not possible to 
resist the second charge, which was more severe. They had in 
store great stones and gruesas, beams some of them, the half on 
fire, they let fall from the top, which recovering force on the slope 
of the steps, obliged him to recede three times* Hernando Cortes 

* From this it is evident that the ascent to the top of the teocalli was by a 
ramp with steps, leading directly to the top. Besides, it is evident from the 
attack of Escobar and that of Cortes that neither of them made repeated cir- 
cuits on the terraces of the teocalli to reach the top. 



120 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XII. 



recognized the danger, and dismounting, reinforced the company 
of Escobar with the men of his own company. He caused a shield 
to be tied to his wounded arm, and rushed up the steps with the 
greatest resolution. He quickly and fortunately conquered the 
impediments to the assault, reached at the first attack the last 
steps, and soon after the battlements of the top. They were Mexi- 
can nobles who defended it, and they allowed themselves to be cut 
in pieces rather than surrender their arms. The priests and min- 
isters of the temple died fighting, and in a short time Cortes was 
master of the position. 

There were several teocallis in Sempoalla. Narvaez, who was 
sent with forces by Velasquez, governor of Cuba, to capture 
Cortes, fortified himself in one of them, where he was surprised 
by Cortes. " Sandoval charged the quarters of Narvaez, and 
drove his adversaries from the court to the teocalli, and com- 
menced advancing up the steps, but not being able to sustain 
himself against a body of troops much larger than his own, and 
in an advantageous position, he was beaten back down the steps. 
Just at this critical juncture Olid arrived to his assistance, the 
tide was turned, and Sandoval again pressed forward with renewed 
vigor. Narvaez now appeared in the midst of his men, and did 
everything to animate them and to put them in order, after which 
he rushed forward into the thickest of the fight, where he received 
so violent a blow in his face, from a lance, that it crushed his eye 
and hurled him senseless to the pave. The fall of Narvaez caused 
confusion in his men, who found themselves obliged to retire, and 
the conquerors took this opportunity to drag Narvaez to the foot 
of the stair and into the midst of the rear battalion. 

" The battle, however, still continued in various points, as sev- 
eral of Narvaez's officers maintained their positions on the tops 
of other teocallis. Cortes, however, sent round a herald to sum- 
mon them to surrender under penalty of death in case of refusal. 
This had the desired effect, and only the troops under } 7 oung 
Diego Velasquez and Salvatierra, which had taken up their posi- 
tion on the summit of a very high teocalli, where it was difficult 
to get at them, refused to submit. But Juan Velasquez, of Leon, 
attacked them so vigorously that at last he forced them to surren- 
der." 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



121 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Mexico— The Founding of the Great Temple— Descriptions of the Great Tem- 
ple at Mexico — Description of the Temples of Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, 
Mitla, and Papantla — The Mexican Hierarchy — Monasteries — Nunneries 
— Sacrifices— Offerings— Penances — Funeral Kites — Fortifications. 

In the " History of Mexico," translated from the original Italian 
of the Abbe Francisco Saverio Clavigero, by Charles Cullen, is the 
following : 

" Tizoc died in the fifth year of his reign, the one thousand four 
hundred and eighty-second year of the vulgar era. During his 
time the power and wealth of the crown had arrived to such a 
height that he undertook to construct a temple to the tutelary god 
of the nation, ' which was to have surpassed, in grandeur and 
magnificence, all the temples of that country.' He had prepared 
a great quantity of material for that purpose, and had begun the 
structure when death interrupted his projects. 

" The electors being assembled to appoint a new king, they chose 
Ahuitzotl, the brother of their two preceding kings, who was 
already general of the army ; for, from the time of Chimalpopoca,* 
the custom had prevailed of exalting no one to the throne who had 
not first occupied that post. 

"The first object to which the new king paid attention was the 
finishing of that magnificent temple which had been designed and 
begun by his predecessor. It was resumed with the utmost spirit 
and activity, an incredible number of workmen being assembled, 
and was completed in four years. While the building was being 
constructed, the king went frequently to war, and all the prisoners 
which were taken from the enemy were reserved for the festival of 
its consecration. The wars of these four years were carried on 
against the Mazahuas, a few miles distant towards the west, who 
had rebelled against the crown of Tacuba; against the Zapotecas, 
three hundred miles distant in the southeast ; and against several 
other nations. When the fabric was completed, the king invited 
the two allied kings, and all the nobility of both kingdoms, to the 
dedication. The concourse of people was, by far, the most numer- 

* "His ( Chimalpopoca' s) reign lasted about thirteen years, being concluded 
in 1423. Chimalpopoca was the third King of Mexico, from the beginning of 
the thirteenth century." 



122 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII. 



cms ever seen in Mexico, as this famous solemnity drew spectators 
from the most distant places. The festival lasted four days, during 
which they sacrificed, in the upper porch of the temple, all the 
prisoners which they had made in the four preceding years. His- 
torians are not agreed concerning the number of the victims. Tor- 
quemada says that they amounted to seventy-two thousand three 
hundred and forty-four ; others affirm they were sixty-four thou- 
sand and sixty in number. After the festival the king made 
presents to all whom he had invited. This event happened in 
1486. 

" In 1510 Montezuma, thinking the altar for the sacrifices too 
small, and unproportioned to the magnificence of the temple, 
caused a proper stone of excessive size to be sought for, which was 
found near to Cojoacan. After ordering it to be cut and polished, 
he commanded it to be brought in due form to Mexico, where it 
was consecrated with the sacrifice of all the prisoners that had 
been reserved for this great festival. In this same year the conse- 
cration of the temple Tlamatzinco was celebrated, and also that of 
Quaxicalco. The victims sacrificed at the consecration of these 
two edifices, and the altar of the sacrifices, were, according to the 
account of historians, twelve thousand two hundred and ten in 
number. 

" The Mexicans called the temple TeocaUi, that is, the House of 
God. and Teopan, the Place of God. The immense temple, reared 
and dedicated by Ahitzotl, was the temple which the Spaniards 
celebrated so nighty after they had destined it. It were to be 
wished that their accuracy in describing its dimensions had been 
but equal to their zeal in destrojdng that superb monument of 
superstition ; but such is the variety of their accounts that, after 
having labored to reconcile them, I have found it impossible to 
ascertain its proportions ; nor should I ever have been able to form 
an idea of the architecture of that temple without the figure pre- 
sented to us by the Anonymous Conqueror, a copy of which I 
have here subjoined, although I have paid less regard in it to his 
delineation than his description. I shall mention, therefore, all 
that I think may be depended upon after a very tedious compari- 
son of the descriptions given by four eye-witnesses, and neglect 
what I have been unable to extract from the confusion of different 
authors."* 

* "The four eye-witnesses, whose descriptions we have connected together, 
are Cortes, Bernal Diaz, the Anonymous Conqueror and Sahagun. The first 
three lived for several months in the palace of the King Axajacatl, near the 
temple, and, therefore, saw it every day. Sahagun, though he never saw it 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



123 



The great temple [11] occupied the centre of the city, and, to- 
gether with the other temples and buildings annexed to it, com- 
prehended all that space upon which the great cathedral church 
now stands, part of the greater market-place, and part, likewise, of 
the streets and buildings around. Within the enclosure of the 
wall, which encompassed it in a square form, Cortes affirms five 
hundred houses might have stood. 

The wall, built of stone and lime, was very thick, eight feet 
high, crowned with battlements in the form of niches, and orna- 
mented with many stone figures in the shape of serjDents, whence it 
obtained the name of Coatepantli, or the wall of serpents. It had 
four gates to the four cardinal points : the eastern gate looked to 
a broad street which led to the lake Tezcuco ; they corresponded 
to the three principal streets of the city, the broadest and straight- 
est, which formed a continuation with those built upon the lake 
that led to Iztapalapan, to Tacuba, and to Tepejacac. Over each 
of the four gates was an arsenal filled with a vast quantity of 
offensive and defensive weapons, where the troops went when it 
was necessary to be supplied with arms. The space within the 
wall was curiously paved with such smooth and polished stones 
that the horses of the Spaniards could not move upon them with- 
out slipping and tumbling down. In the middle was raised an 
immense solid building of greater length than breadth,* covered 
with square, equal pieces of pavement. The building consisted of 
five bodies nearly equal in height, but differing in length and 
breadth, the highest being narrowest. The first body, or base of 
the building, was more than fifty perches long from east to west, and 
about forty -three in breadth from north to south ; the second body 

entire, yet saw some part of it, and could discover what ground it had occu- 
pied. Gomera, who did not himself see the temple, nor ever was in Mexico, 
received the different accounts of it from the conquerors themselves, who saw 
it. Acosta, whose description has been copied by Herrera and De Solis, instead 
of the great temple, describes one perfectly different. This author was not in 
Mexico until sixty years after the conquest." 

* ' ' Gomera affirms that the wall was a very long bowshot in length upon 
every side. Dr. Hernandez allows to the wall of every side two hundred 
Toledo cubits, which is about eighty-six perches. Sahagun makes the temple 
perfectly square. The Anonymous Conqueror represents it to have been of 
greater length than breadth, like those of Teotihuacan, which served as models 
for all the rest. Sahagun gives to the first body, upon every side, three hun- 
dred and sixty Toledon feet, a little more than fifty perches. Gomera gives it 
fifty brazas, about forty perches, which is the measure of its breadth." But the 
most difficult to understand is the ascent to the top of the great temple. From 
the account of Cortes' capture of the temple one would believe that the ascent 
was by continuous steps formed on a ramp in the front of the building. 



124 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII. 



was about a perch less in length and breadth than the first ; the 
third as much less than the second, and the rest in proportion ; 
so that upon each body there remained a free space or plain, 
which would allow three or even four men abreast to walk round 
the next body. 

The stairs, which were upon the south side, were made of large, 
well-formed stones, and consisted of one hundred and fourteen 
steps, each a foot high. They were not, however, one single stair- 
case continued all the way, as they have been represented by the 
authors of " The General History of Travels " and the publishers 
of " Cortes' Letters in Mexico," but were divided into as many 
separate staircases as there were bodies of the building ; so that, 
after getting to the top of the first staircase, we could not mount 
the second without going along the first plain round to the 
second, nor the third without going along the second plain, and 
so of the rest. 

The area of the top of the temple, which was about forty-three 
perches by thirty-four, was as well paved as the great area below. 
At the eastern extremity of this plain were raised two towers to 
the height of fifty feet. Each was divided into three bodies, the 
lower of which was of stone and lime, and the other two of wood 
very well wrought and painted. The inferior body of each was 
properly the sanctuary, where, upon an altar of stone, five feet 
high, were placed the tutelary idols. One of these two sanctuaries 
was consecrated to Huitzilopochtli and the gods of war, and the 
other to Tezcatlipoca. The other bodies were destined to the 
keeping of some things belonging to the worship and the ashes 
of some kings and lords who through particular devotion desired 
that to be done. The doors of both sanctuaries were towards the 
west, and both towers terminated in a very beautiful wooden 
cupola. There is no author who has described the internal dis- 
position and ornaments of the sanctuaries ; so that what is repre- 
sented incomplete is only delineated from conjecture. I believe, 
however, we may venture to say, without danger of mistake, that 
the height of the building, without towers, was not less than nine- 
teen perches, and, with the towers, exceeded twenty-eight. From 
that height one might see the lake, the cities around and a great 
part of the valley ; and it has been affirmed, by eye-witnesses, to 
be the finest prospect in the world. 

Before the two sanctuaries were two stone stoves of the height 
of a man and of the shape of our holy pyx, in which they pre- 
served a constant fire night and day with the utmost care, fearing 
that, if ever it went out, they should suffer the most dreadful 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



125 



punishment from heaven. In the other temples and religious 
buildings comprised within the enclosure of the great wall there 
were six hundred stoves of the same size and figure, which, in the 
night-time, when they used all to be burning, presented a very 
pleasing sight. 

In the space betwixt the wall and the great temple there were 
besides a place for their religious dances, upwards of forty lesser 
temples consecrated to the other gods, and many other buildings 
scattered about, of which, for their singularity, it will be necessary 
to give some account. 

The most remarkable were the Temples of Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, 
and Quetzalcoatl. They all resembled one another in form, but 
were of different sizes, and all fronted the great temple, while the 
other temples without this area were built with the front towards 
the west. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl, which differed from the 
rest in form, it being round, and the others quadrangular. The door 
of this sanctuary was the mouth of an enormous serpent of stone 
armed with fangs.* Some Spaniards, tempted by curiosity to go 
into that diabolical temple, afterwards confessed the horror which 
they felt upon entering it. Among other temples there was one 
called Llhuicatitlan, dedicated to the planet Venus, in which was a 
great pillar with the figure of that star printed or engraved upon 
it, near which, at the time of her appearance, they sacrificed pris- 
oners. 

Among the remarkable buildings within this area besides the 
four arsenals over the four gates,f there was another near the 
temple Tezcatca^ {house of mirrors), so called from its walls being- 
covered with mirrors on the inside. There was another small 
temple called Teccizcilli, all adorned with shells. There were 
ponds in which the priests bathed, and fountains, the waters of 
which they drank. In the pond, called Tezcapan, many bathed 
in obedience to a particular vow made to the gods. The water of 
one of the fountains, called Toxpalatl, was esteemed holy; it was 
drank only at the most solemn feasts, and no person was allowed 
to taste it at any other time. 

Particular apartments were destined for the keeping of idols. 
Among the buildings most striking from their singularity was a 
great, prison-like cage, in which they kept the idols of the con- 
quered nations, as if imprisoned. In some other buildings of this 

* Coa</pantli serpents-wall, and Coatl in Quetzalcoatl, signifies serpent, 
t Not represented in the pictures of the enclosure. Bather an awkward 
place for an arsenal. Diaz does not mention them. 



126 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII. 



kind they preserved the heads of those who had been sacrificed, 
some in which were nothing but heaps of bones piled upon one 
another. In others the heads were arranged in regular order upon 
poles or fixed against the walls, forming by the variety of their 
disposition a spectacle not less curious than horrible. The greatest 
of these buildings, called Huitzompan, although not within the 
great wall, was but a little way from it, over against the principal 
gate. This was a prodigious rampart of earth, longer than it was 
broad, in the form of a half-pyramid. In the lowest part it was 
one hundred and fifty-four feet long. The ascent to the plain 
upon top of it was by a stair of thirty steps. Upon that plain 
were erected, about four feet asunder, more than seventy very long 
beams, bored from top to bottom. By these holes sticks were 
passed across from one beam to another, and upon each of them a 
certain number of heads were strung by the temples. Upon the 
steps also of the stair there was a head betwixt every stone, and 
at each end of the same edifice was a tower which appeared to 
have been made only of skulls and lime. As soon as a head 
began to crumble with age, the priest supplied its place with a 
fresh one from the bone-heaps, in order to preserve the due num- 
ber and arrangement. The skulls of ordinary victims were stripped 
of the scalp, but those of men of rank and great warriors they 
endeavored to preserve with the skin and beard and hair entire, 
which served only to render more frightful these trophies of their 
barbarous superstition. The number of heads preserved in this 
and such other buildings is so great, that some of the Spanish 
conquerors took the trouble of reckoning up those upon the steps 
of this building and upon the files betwixt the beams, and found 
them amount to one hundred and thirty-six thousand.* 

Besides these temples, there were others scattered in different 
quarters of the city. Some authors make the number of temples 
in that capital (comprehending, as may be imagined, even the 
smallest), amount to two thousand, and that of the towers to 
three hundred and sixty, but we do not know that any one ever 
actually counted them. There can be no doubt, however, that 
they were very numerous, and among them seven or eight distin- 
guished for their size ; but that of Tlatelolco, consecrated likewise 
to Huitzilopochtli, rose above them all. 

Out of the capital the most celebrated were those of Tezcuco, 
Cholula, and Teotihuacan. The lofty pyramid of Cholula, raised 

* This horrible and disgusting exhibition of human bones and skulls is not 
peculiar to Mexico ; such horrors are found in Europe, and may be introduced 
into the United States. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



127 



by the Toltecas, remains to this day, in that place where there was 
formerly a temple consecrated to that false deity, and now is a 
holy sanctuary of the Mother of the true God; but the pyramid, 
from its great antiquity, is so covered with earth and bushes that 
it seems more like a natural eminence than an edifice. Its cir- 
cumference in the lower part is less than half a mile. One may 
ascend to the top by a path made in a spiral direction around the 
pyramid, and I went up on horseback in 1744. 

The famous edifices of Teotihuacan [12], about three miles south 
from that place, and more than twenty from Mexico, towards 
Greco, still subsist. These immense buildings, which served as a 
model for the temples of that country, were two temples conse- 
crated, the one to the Sun, and the other to the Moon, represented 
by two idols of monstrous bulk, made of stone and covered with 
gold. That of the sun had a great concavity in the breast, and an 
image of that planet, of the purest gold, fixed in it. The con- 
querors possessed themselves of the gold ; the idols were broken 
by order of the first bishop of Mexico. The base or inferior body 
of the Temple of the Sun is twenty-eight perches long and eighty- 
six broad, and the height of the whole building is in proportion* 
That of the Moon is eighty-six perches long at the base and sixty- 
three broad. Each of these temples is divided into four bodies, 
and as many stairs, which are arranged in the same manner with 
those of the great Temple of Mexico, but cannot now be traced, 
partly from their ruinous condition and partly from the great 
quantity of earth with which they are everywhere covered. Round 
these edifices are scattered several little hills, which are supposed 
to have been as many lesser temples, dedicated to the other planets 
and stars ; and from this place being so full of religious buildings, 
antiquity gave it the name of Teotihuacan.f 

The description of the House of the Sun and of the House of 
the Moon, by Brantz Mayer, is as follows: "Ascending the one 
hundred and twenty-one feet of the House of the Sun, we reach 
a level platform on the summit, whence a charming prospect 
extends for many miles to the south and east over cultivated 
fields. At the southern base of the pyramid, which measures 
six hundred and eighty-two feet, there are four small mounds, 
and. beyond these, there is a range of lesser tumuli running to- 
wards an elevated square of mounds, lying between the stream 

* "Cav Botnrini measured their height ; but when he wrote his book lie had 
not the measure with him ; yet he thinks he found the Temple of the Sun to 
have been two hundred Castilian cubits high ; that is, thirty-six perches." 

f Clavigero. 



128 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII. 



west of Teotihuacan and the present road to Otumba. On the west 
front, five tumuli surround an oval mound, whose centre is de- 
pressed, and all of these jut out westwardly towards a line of sim- 
ilar grave-like elevations lying on both sides of the avenue that 
leads to the House of the Moon. This road is the Micoatl, or Path 
of the Dead. 

" The other pyramid, or House of the Moon, is smaller, and, like 
its neighbor, is composed of rocks, stones, pottery and cement — 
covered with the debris of obsidian and terra-cotta images, which 
lie scattered from the top to the base amid the tangled aloes and 
creepers which have struck their roots deeply into the crevices. 
The House of the Sun is not known to have any cavity within its 
body ; but in the House of the Moon, between the second and 
third terraces, a narrow passage has been detected, through which 
two wells or sunken chambers, about fifteen feet deep, may be 
reached by crawling on hands and knees over an inclined plain 
for a distance of about eight yards. The walls of this cryp- 
tic entrance and of the sunken chambers are made of the com- 
mon sun-dried bricks; but there are no remains of sculpture, paint- 
ing or bodies to reward an antiquarian for groping through the 
dark and dusty aperture. 

" South of this pyramid of the Moon is the Micoatl, or Path of 
the Dead. Two elliptical elevations rise at the southeast and 
southwest corners of the Teocalli, upon each of which there are 
three similar mounds. Four circular and one square mound lie 
within the area of this enclosure, and the whole appears to form 
a massive portal of tumuli to the majestic pyramid. A long double 
line of minor mounds stretch away to the south on the sides of 
the avenue until all traces of them are lost in the field in front of 
the Temple of the Sun, with whose groups of tumuli this path was, 
in all likelihood, formerly united. A better idea of the localities 
of these remains will be obtained by examining the plan, which 
was carefully prepared by the author on the spot in 1842. 

" About eighteen miles south of Cuernavaca, in the State of 
Mexico, there is a cerro, or hill, known as Xochicalco, or the ' hill 
of flowers,' whose summit is occupied by the remains of an 
ancient stone pyramid. The traveller reaches this eminence 
after travelling over a wide plain intersected by deep barrancas 
and almost entirely denuded of trees and shrubbery. The base 
of the hill is surrounded by the remains of a deep, wide ditch, 
and its top is attained by five spiral terraces, supported by walls 
of stone joined with cement. At suitable distances from each 
other, along the edge of this winding path, are the remains of 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



129 



bulwarks fashioned like the bastions of a fortification. On the 
summit there is a wide, extensive level, the eastern part of which 
is occupied by three truncated cones resembling the smaller 
mounds found among the pyramids of Teotihuacan. On the 
other three sides of the esplanade there are other masses of stones 
which may have also been portions of smaller tumuli. The stones 
of which these lesser mounds were constructed have evidently 
been nicely shaped and covered with a coat of stucco. 

" Passing upward, amid tangled trees and vines, along the last 
terrace and through the cornfield that is cultivated on the plain 
at top by an Indian ranchero, the traveller at length stands before 
the remains of the elegant structure that once crowned the sum- 
mit with its carved and massive architecture. The reports of 
engineers who visited this pyramid in years long past, and the 
legend of the neighborhood, declared that it originally consisted 
of five stories, placed upon each other at regular intervals and 
separated by narrow platforms. But of all these, nothing now 
remains except portions of the first body, which is formed of cut 
porphyry, and covered with singular emblems. 

•' The neighboring planters used it as a quarry, from which they 
supplied the wants of their estates. In the middle of the eighteenth 
century the fine terraces were yet perfect. But, as the country 
became settled in the neighborhood, the farmers began to pilfer 
from the mass, and not long before we visited it, in 1842, an 
adjacent landowner had carried off large loads of the sculptured 
stones to build a dam in a neighboring ravine.* 

■' The story of this pyramid, that has been thus far spared, is 
rectangular, and facing north, south, east, or west, in exact corre- 
spondence with the cardinal points. It measures sixty-four feet 
on its northern front above the plinth, and fifty-eight on the west- 
ern. The distance between the plinth and the frieze is about ten 
feet : the breadth of the frieze is three feet and a half, and the 
height of the cornice one foot and five inches. The most perfect 
portion is the northern front, and here the carving in relief, which 
is between three and four inches deep, is most distinctly visible. 
The massive stones — some of which are seven feet eleven inches 
long by two feet nine inches wide — are all laid upon each other 
without cement. The weighty materials were drawn from a con- 

* Such has been the fate of many relics of antiquity. After civilization ceases 
barbarism succeeds and the relics of antiquity supply present necessities, and 
become the material for new structures. The ruins of one age supplies another. 
Thus Babel of Babylon and the Pyramids of Egypt served the purposes of 
after ages. 

9 



130 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XIII. 



siderable distance, and borne up a hill three hundred feet in 
height without the use of horses. Few nations have probably 
devoted more time and toil to a work which was, perhaps, partly 
religious and partly defensive. 

" It appears from good authority, and from the report of the 
neighborhood, that the hill itself was partly hollowed into cham- 
bers. Some years since a party of gentlemen, under the orders 
of the Government, explored these subterranean streets, and after 
groping through dark and narrow passages, whose side-walls were 
covered with hard and glistening grey cement, they came to three 
entrances between two enormous pillars cut from the rock of which 
the hill is formed. Through these portals they entered a cham- 
ber whose roof was a cupola of regular shape, built of stones 
placed in circles, while at the top of the dome was an aperture 
which probably led to the surface of the earth or the summit of 
the pyramid."* 

In the following extract from Humboldt's " New Spain, 1 ' in 
which is given an account of Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, etc., not only 
is given the measure in inches by Humboldt, but also their equiva- 
lent in English feet, by the translator of that work : 

The only ancient monuments in the Mexican valley, which, 
from their size or their masses, can strike the eyes of an European, 
are the remains of two pyramids of Teotihuacan, situated to the 
northeast of the lake of Tezcuco, consecrated to the sun and moon, 
which the Indians called Tonatiuh Ytzaqual, house of the sun, and 
and Metzli Ytzaqual, house of the moon. According to the meas- 
urements made in 1803 by a young Mexican savant, Dr. Oteyza, 
the first pyramid, which is the most southern, has in its present 
state a base of two hundred and eight metres (six hundred and 
eighty-two English feet) in length and fifty-five metres (one hun- 
dred and eighty feet) of perpendicular elevation. The second, 
the pyramid of the moon, is eleven metres (thirty-six feet) lower, 
and its base is much less. These monuments, according to the 
accounts of the first travellers, and from the form which they yet 
exhibit, were the models of the Aztec teocallis. The nations whom 
the Spaniards found settled in New Spain attribute the pyramids 
of Teotihuacan to the Toultec nation ,f consequently the construc- 
tion goes back to the eighth or ninth century, for the kingdom of 
Tolula lasted from 607 to 1031. The faces of these edifices are to 

* Brantz Mayer's " History of Mexico." 

f Siguenza, however, believes them to be the work of the Olmec nation. 
If this be true, these monuments would be still older. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



131 



within fifty-two seconds exactly placed from north to south and 
from east to west. Their interior is clay mixed with small stones. 
This kernel is covered with a thick wall of porous amygdaloid. We 
perceive, besides, traces of a bed of lime, which covers the stones 
on the outside. They formed four layers, of which three only are 
now perceivable; the injuries of time and the vegetation of the 
cactus and argives have exercised their destructive influence on 
the exterior of these monuments. A stair of large hewn stones 
formerly led to their tops, where, according to the accounts of the 
first travellers, were statutes covered with very thin lamina? of 
gold. Each of the four principal layers were divided into small 
gradations of a metre (three feet three inches) in height, of which 
the edges are still distinguishable, which were covered with frag- 
ments of obsidian, that were undoubtedly the edge instruments 
with which the Toultec and Aztec priests, in their barbarous sac- 
rifices, opened the chests of the human victims. What is very re- 
markable (especially if we call to mind the assertion of Pecocke 
as to the symmetrical position of the lower pyramids of Egypt) is 
that around the houses of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan we 
find a group, I may say a system, of pyramids of scarcely nine or 
ten metres (twenty-nine or thirty-two feet) elevation. These 
monuments, of which there are several hundreds, are disposed in 
very large streets, which follow exactly the direction of the par- 
allels and of the meridians, and which terminate in the four faces 
of the two great pyramids. The lesser pyramids are more fre- 
quent towards the southern side of the temple of the moon than 
towards the temple of the sun, and, according to the tradition of 
the country, they were dedicated to the stars. It appears certain 
enough that they served as burying-places for the chiefs of tribes. 
All the plain which the Spaniards called Llano de los Cues bore 
formerly in the Aztec and Toultec languages the name Micoatl, or 
road of the dead. 

Another ancient monument is the military entrenchment of 
Xochicalco, situated to the south-southwest of the town Cuerna- 
vaca, near Tetlama. It is an insulated hill of one hundred and 
seventeen metres of elevation, surrounded with trenches and di- 
vided by the hand of man into five terraces covered with masonry. 
The whole forms a truncated pyramid, of which the four faces are 
exactly laid down according to the four cardinal points. The 
porphyry stones with basaltic bases are of a very regular cut, and 
are adorned with hieroglyphical figures, among which are to be 
seen crocodiles spouting water, and, what is very curious, men sit- 



132 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII, 



ting cross-legged in the Asiatic manner. The platform of this ex- 
traordinary monument contains more than nine thousand square 
metres (ninety- six thousand eight hundred and twenty-five square 
feet), and exhibits the ruins of a small square edifice, which un- 
doubtedly served for a last retreat to the besieged. 

The table-land of Puebla exhibits remarkable vestiges of an- 
cient Mexican civilization. The fortifications of Tlaxcallan are 
of a construction posterior to that of the great pyramid of Cho- 
lula. This pyramid consists of four stages, that is, in its present 
state, the perpendicular elevation is only fifty-four metres (one 
hundred and seventy-seven feet), and the horizontal breadth of 
the base four hundred and thirty-nine metres (one thousand four 
hundred and twenty-three feet); its sides are very exactly 
in the direction of the meridians and parallels, and it is con- 
structed (if we may judge from the perforation made a few } 7 ears 
ago in the north side) of alternate strata of brick and clay. These 
data are sufficient for our recognition in the construction of this 
edifice the same model observed in the form of the pyramids of 
Teotihuacan. They suffice also to prove the great analogy between 
these brick monuments erected by the ancient inhabitants of 
Anahuac and the Temple of Belus at Babylon and the pyramids 
of Darfeur, near Sakhara, in Egypt. 

The platform of the truncated pyramid of Cholula has a sur- 
face of forty -two hundred metres, forty-five thousand two hun- 
dred and eight square feet. The teocalli is exactly the same 
height as Tonatiuh Ytzaqual of Teotihuacan, and it is three metres 
higher than the Mycerinus, the third of the great Egyptian pyra- 
mids of the group of Ghize. As to the apparent length of its base, 
it exceeds that of all the edifices of the same description hitherto 
found by travellers in the old continent, and is almost the double 
of that of the great pyramid known by the name Cheops. Those 
who wish to form a clear idea of the great mass of this Mexican 
monument from a comparison with objects more generally known, 
may imagine a square four times the dimensions of the Place 
Vendome covered with a heap of bricks, of twice the elevation of 
the Louvre. We know not the ancient height of this extraordi- 
nary monument. 

I shall here subjoin the true dimensions of the three great 
pyramids of Ghize, from the interesting work of M. Grobert, the 
dimensions of the brick pyramidal monuments of Sakhara, in 
Egypt, and of Teotihuacan and Cholula, in Mexico. The numbers 
are French feet (a French foot= 1.060 English). 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



133 





Stone Pyramids. 


Brick Pyramids. 


Cheops. 


Cephren. 


Myceri- 
nus. 


Of Five 
Stages in 

Egypt, 
near 
Sakhara. 


Of Four Stages in 
Mexico. 


Teotihu- 
acan. 


Cholula. 


Height 


448 


398 


102 


150 


171 


172 






728 


655 


280 


210 


645 


1355 





If the province of Oaxaca contains no monuments of ancient 
Aztec architecture equally astonishing from their dimensions as 
the teocalli of Cholula and Teotihuacan and Papantla, it contains 
the ruins of edifices more remarkable for their symmetry and the 
elegance of their ornaments. The walls of the palace of Mitla are 
decorated with Grecques, and labyrinths in mosaic of small por- 
phyry stones. We perceived in them the same design which we 
admire in the vases falsely called Tuscan, as in the frise of the 
old Temple of Deus Rediculus, near the grotto of the nymph 
Egeria, at Rome. 

The village of Mitla was formerly called Miguitlan, which sig- 
nifies in the Mexican language a place of sadness. The Tzapotic 
Indians call it Leoba, which means a tomb. In fact, the palace 
of Mitla was constructed over the tombs of the kings. It was an 
edifice to which the sovereign retired for some time on the death 
of a son, a wife, or a mother. The palace, or rather the tombs of 
Mitla form three edifices, symmetrically placed in an extremely 
romantic situation. The principal edifice is in best preservation, 
and is nearly forty metres, one hundred and thirty-two feet, in 
length. A stair formed in a pit leads to a subterranean apartment 
of twenty-seven metres in length and eight in breadth (eighty- 
eight feet by twenty -six). This gloomy apartment is covered with 
the same Grecques which ornament the exterior walls of the 
edifice. 

But what distinguishes the ruins of Mitla from all other re- 
mains of Mexican architecture are six porphyry columns, which 
are in the midst of a vast hall, and support the ceiling. These 
columns, almost the only ones found in the ancient architecture 
of the new continent, bear strong marks of the infancy of the art. 
They have neither base nor capitals. A simple contraction of the 
upper part is only to be remarked. Their total height is five 
metres, but their shaft is of one piece of amphibolous porphyry. 



134 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII. 



Broken-down fragments, for ages heaped together, conceal more 
than a third of the height of these columns.* 

The distribution of the apartments in the interior of this singu- 
lar edifice bears a striking analogy to what has been remarked in 
the monuments of Upper Egypt, drawn by M. Denon. M. de 
Laguna found in the ruins of Mitla curious paintings representing 
warlike trophies and sacrifices. 

In the northern part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz, west from 
the mouth of the Rio Tecolutla, at two leagues distance from the 
great Indian village of Papantla, we met with a pyramidal edifice 
of great antiquity. The pyramid of Papantla remained unknown 
to the first conquerors. It is situated in the midst of a thick 
forest called Tajin in the Totonic language. The Indians con- 
cealed this monument, the object of an ancient veneration, for 
centuries from the Spaniards, and it was only discovered acci- 
dentally by some hunters about thirty years ago. 

The pyramid of Papantla is not constructed of bricks or clay 
mixed with stones and faced with a wall of amygdaloid, like the 
pyramids of Cholula and Teotihuacan ; the only materials em- 
ployed are immense stones of a porphyretical shape. Mortar is 
distinguished on the seams. The edifice, however, is not so 
remarkable for its size as for its symmetry, the polish of the 
stones, and the great regularity of their cut. The base of the 
pyramid is an exact square, each side being twenty-five metres — 
eighty-two feet — in length. The perpendicular height appears 
not to be more than from sixteen to twenty metres (fifty-two to 
sixty-five feet). This monument is composed of several stages. 
Six are still distinguishable, and a seventh appears to be con- 
cealed by the vegetation with, which the sides of the pyramid are 
covered. A great stair of fifty-seven steps conducts to the trun- 
cated top of the teocalli, where the human victims were sacrificed. 
On each side of the stair is a smaller stair. The facing of the 
stories is adorned with hieroglyphics, in which serpents and 
crocodiles carved in relief are discernible. Each story contains a 
great number of square niches, symmetrically distributed. In the 
first story we reckoned twenty-four on each side ; in the second 
twenty ; and in the third sixteen. The number of these niches in 

* Amongst the monuments of ancient architecture which are extant in the 
Mexican empire, the edifices of Mictlan, in Mizteca, are very celebrated. There 
are many things about them worthy of admiration, particularly a large hall, 
the roof of which is supported by various cylindrical columns of stone, eighty 
feet high, and about twenty in circumference, each of them consisting of a single 
stone. — Clavigero's u History of Mexico," vol. L, page 420. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



135 



the body of the pyramid is three hundred and sixty-six, and there 
are twelve in the stair towards the east. The Abbe Marquez sup- 
poses that this number of three hundred and seventy-eight niches 
has some allusion to a calendar of the Mexicans.* 

Clavigero says : " The number of temples throughout the whole 
Mexican empire was very great. Torquemada thought there might 
be forty thousand ; but I am persuaded they would far exceed 
that number, if we should take the less ones into account; for 
there is not an inhabitable place without one temple, nor any 
place of any extent without a considerable number. 

" The architecture of the great temples was, for the most part, 
the same with that of the great Temple of Mexico ; but there were 
many, likewise, of a different structure. Many consisted of a 
single body in the form of a pyramid, with a stair ; others of ordi- 
nary bodies, with similar stairs.^ 

" The superstition of these people, not contented with such a 
great number of temples in their cities, villages, and hamlets, 
erected many altars upon the tops of hills, in the woods, and in 
the streets, not only for the purpose of encouraging the idolatrous 
worship of travellers, but for the celebration of certain sacrifices 
to the gods of mountains and other rustic deities. J 

" Each temple had its own lands and possessions, and even its 
own peasants to cultivate them. Thence was drawn all that was 
necessary for the maintenance of the priests, together with the 
wood which was consumed in great quantities in the temples. 
In the kingdom of Acolhuacan, those twenty-nine cities which 
provided necessaries for the royal palace, were likewise obliged to 
provide for the temples. There is reason to believe that the tract 
of country named Teotlalpan (land of the gods) was so named from 
being among the possessions of the temples. There were, besides, 
great numbers daily of free offerings, from the devout, of every 
kind of provisions and first fruits, which were presented in return- 
ing thanks for seasonable rains and other blessings of heaven. 
Near the temples were the granaries, where all the grain and other 
provisions necessary for the maintenance of the priests were kept, 
and the overplus was annually distributed to the poor, for whom 
also there were hospitals in the larger towns. 

" We may form some conjecture of the immense number of 

* Humboldt's " New Spain." 

t But the great temple was modelled after temples that existed when the 
Mexicans invaded the country, those of Teotihuacan. 

% In this the Mexicans were not different from the Komans and other nations 
of antiquity, not even from some of the present ago. 



136 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII. 



priests in the Mexican empire from the number within the area 
of the great temple, which some ancient historians tell us amounted 
to five thousand. Nor will that calculation appear surprising when 
we consider that in that place there were four hundred priests con- 
secrated to the service of the god Tezcatzencal alone. I should 
not think it rash to affirm that there could not be less than a 
million of priests throughout the empire." 

There were several different orders and degrees among the 
priests. The chief of all were the two high- priests, to whom they 
gave the names of Teoteuctli (divine lord) and Hueitcopixqui (great 
priest). The high-priests were the oracles whom the kings con- 
sulted in all the most important affairs of the state, and no war 
was ever undertaken without their approbation. It belonged to 
them to anoint the king after his election, and to open the breasts 
and tear out the hearts of the human victims at the most solemn 
sacrifice. The high-priest in the kingdom of Acolhuacan was, 
according to some historians, always the second son of the king. 
Among the Totonicas he was anointed with the elastic gum 
mixed with children's blood, and this they called the divine unc- 
tion. Some authors say the same of the high-priest of Mexico. 

From what is said it appears that the high-priests of Mexico 
were the heads of their religion only among Mexicans, and not 
with respect to the other conquered nations ; these, even after 
being subjected to the crown of Mexico, still maintained their 
priesthood independent. 

The name Teopixqui was given to the priests, which means the 
guard or minister of god. 

The Ometochtli was the chief composer of the hymns which 
were sung at festivals. 

The Tlapixcatzin, the master of the chapel, not only appointed 
the music, but superintended the singing and corrected the 
singers. 

All the offices of religion were divided among the priests. 
Some were the sacrificers, others diviners, some were the com- 
posers of f^mns, others those who sung. Among the singers some 
sang at certain hours of the day, others sang at certain hours of 
the night. 

Four times a day they offered incense to their idols, viz., at day- 
break, at mid-day, at sunset, and at midnight. To the Sun they 
made daily new offerings, four times during the day and five times 
during the night. For incense they generally made use of copal, 
or some other aromatic gum, but in certain festivals they em- 
ployed Chapopotli, or bitumen of Judea. The censers were com- 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



137 



monly made of clay, but they had also censers of gold. The 
priests never shaved, by which means the hair of many of them 
grew so long as to reach to their legs. 

The priests had a ridiculous superstitious practice of blowing 
with their breath on the sick, and made them drink water which 
they had blessed after their manner. They observed many fasts, 
and great austerity of life. They never were intoxicated with 
drinking, and seldom ever tasted wine. Any incontinence among 
the priests was severely punished. The priest who at Teotihuacan 
was convicted of having violated his chastity was delivered up by 
the priests to the people, who at night killed him by the bastinado. 

The office and character of a priest among the Mexicans was 
not in its nature perpetual, nor was the priesthood confined to 
the male sex. The first thing done to those females who entered 
into the service on account of some private vow, was the cutting 
off of their hair. Some of them rose about two hours before mid- 
night, others at midnight, and others at daybreak, to stir up and 
keep the fire burning, and to offer incense to the idols ; and al- 
though in their function they assembled with the priests, they were 
separated from each other, the men forming one wing and the 
women another, both under the view of their superiors. When a 
virgin, destined from her infancy to the service of the gods, arrived 
at the age of sixteen or eighteen, her parents sought for a husband 
to her. 

Among the different orders or congregations, both of men and 
women, who dedicated themselves to the worship of some par- 
ticular gods, that of Quetzalcoatl is worthy to be mentioned. 
The life led in the monasteries or colleges of either sex which was 
devoted to this imaginary god was uncommonly rigid and austere. 
Another order, called Telpochtliztli, or the youths, on account of 
its being composed of youths or boys, was consecrated to Tezcat- 
lipoca, was attended with almost the same ceremonies as that of 
Quetzalcoatl. Among the Totonicas was an order of monks de- 
voted to their goddess Centeotl. They lived in great retirement 
and austerity. Their number was fixed, and when any one died 
another was received in his stead.* 

The sacrifices varied according to the circumstances of the 
festival. In general the victims suffered death by having their 
breasts opened, but others were drowned in the lake ; others died 
of hunger, shut up in caverns of the mountains ; and, lastly, some 
fell in the gladiatorial sacrifice. f 

* None but men above sixty years of age, who were widowers, were admitted, 
f Clavigero. 



138 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XIII. 



In the province of Teutitlan they had the horrible custom of 
flaying their human victims and wearing their skins. In those 
of Uzila and Atlantlaca when they lacked slaves for the sacrifices 
the Cacique had the right to choose the victims from among his 
subjects. 

The Mazatecs had an annual festival which cost their own 
nation much blood. Some days beforehand the priests, ascend- 
ing to the top of the temple, made known their orders to the peo- 
ple, to warn them to remain in their houses. They also scattered 
themselves in the fields, and all those whom they took were marked 
on the head to serve as victims of sacrifice. 

The Tuatecs had every year a bloody sacrifice. They put to 
death an infant, a chicken, and some other animals, and, content- 
ing themselves with sprinkling the idols with their blood, they 
abandoned the bodies to the birds of prey : but they slew out of 
the temple a number of slaves, and ate the carcasses at public 
feasts. 

The Otemies sacrificed only the captives they made in war, but 
they cut them in pieces, cooked them, and sold them in the public 
markets. 

At the sacrifice in the great temple at Mexico, if the victim was 
a prisoner of war, as soon as he was sacrificed they cut off his 
head, to preserve the skull, and threw the body down the stairs to 
the lower area, where it was taken up by the officer or soldier to 
whom the prisoner had belonged, and carried to his house to be 
boiled and dressed as an entertainment for his friends. If he was 
not a prisoner of war, but a slave purchased for sacrifice, the pro- 
prietor carried off the carcass from the altar for the same pur- 
pose. They ate only the legs, thighs, and arms, and burnt the 
rest, or preserved it for food for the wild beasts or birds of prey kept 
in the royal palaces. 

The religion of the Mexicans was not confined to these sacri- 
fices : offerings were made of various kinds of animals. They 
sacrificed quails and falcons to their god Huitzilopochtli, and 
hares, rabbits, deer, and coyotes to their god Mixeoatl. They 
daily made an offering of quail to the sun. Every day. as the 
sun was about to rise, several priests, standing upon the upper 
area of the temple with their faces towards the east, each with a 
quail in his hand, saluted that luminary's appearance with music, 
and made an offering of the quails, after cutting off their heads. 
This sacrifice was succeeded by the burning of incense, with a 
loud accompaniment of musical instruments. 

They also made "offerings of various kinds of plants, flowers, 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



139 



jewels, gums, and other substances. To their gods Tlaloc and 
Coatlicae they offered the first-blown flowers, and to Cintecatl the 
first maize of every year. They made oblations of bread, various 
pastes, and ready -dressed victuals in such abundance as to be suf- 
ficient to supply all the ministers of the temple. Every morning 
were seen at the foot of the altar innumerable dishes and porringers 
of boiling food, that the steam arising from them might reach the 
nostrils of the idols and nourish their immortal gods. 

The most frequent oblation, however, was that of copal. All 
daily burned incense to their idols ; no house was without cen- 
sers ; the priests, fathers of families, and judges offered incense 
to the four principal winds. But incense-offering among the 
Mexicans and other nations of Anahuac w r as not only an act of 
religion towards their gods, but also a piece of civil courtesy to 
lords and ambassadors. 

The superstition and cruelties of the Mexicans were imitated by 
all the nations which they conquered, or that were contiguous to 
the empire. 

Being accustomed to bloody sacrifices of their prisoners, they 
also failed not to shed abundance of their own blood. They 
mangled their flesh as if it had been insensible, and let their blood 
run in such profusion that it appeared to be a superfluous fluid of 
the body. The effusion of blood was frequent and daily with some 
of the priests. They pierced themselves with the sharpest spines 
of the aloe, and bored several parts of the body, particularly their 
ears, lips, tongues, and the fat (fleshy parts) of their arms and 
legs. Through the holes which they made with these spines, they 
introduced pieces of cane, the first of which were small pieces, but 
every time this penitential suffering was repeated, a thicker piece 
was used. The blood which flowed from them was carefully col- 
lected in leaves of the plant acxojatl. They fixed the bloody spines 
in little balls of hay, which they exposed upon the battlements of 
the walls of the temple, to testify the penance which they did for 
the people. Those who exercised such severities upon themselves 
within the enclosure of the great Temple of Mexico bathed them- 
selves in a pond that was formed there, which, from being always 
tinged with blood, was called Ezapan* 

A festival hardly occurred for which the}' did not prepare them- 

* In regard to self-inflicted tortures, they were not as great as those volun- 
tarily suffered at the feast of the Sun by certain western Indian tribes of North 
America, though infinitely worse than flagellation. To bore the ears, the cartilage 
of the nostrils, and the lip, were common things among the Indians. It was done 
to insert what they considered as ornaments. 



140 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XIII. 



selves with fasting for some days, more or less, according to the 
prescription of their rituals. During that of the Sun, the king re- 
tired into a certain place of the temple, where he watched and shed 
blood according to the custom of the nation. Any other fasts 
bound only particular persons. 

In Mixteca there were many monasteries. 

Funeral Rites. — As soon as any person died, certain masters 
of funeral ceremonies were called. They cut a number of pieces 
of paper with which they dressed the corpse, and took a glass of 
water, with which they sprinkled the head, saying that was the 
water used in the time of their life. They then dressed it in a 
habit suitable to the rank, wealth, and circumstances attending the 
death of the party. Gomera has well observed, they wore more 
garments after they were dead than while they were living. 

With the habit, they gave the dead a jug of water, which was to 
serve on the journey to the other world, and also at successive dif- 
ferent times, different pieces of paper, mentioning the use of them. 
On consigning the first piece to the dead, they said : By means of 
this you will pass without danger between the two mountains 
which fight against each other. With the second they said : By 
means of this you will walk without obstruction along the road 
which is defended by the great serpent. With the third : By this 
you will go securely through the place where there is the crocodile 
Xochitonal. The fourth was a passport through the eight deserts ; 
the fifth, through the eight hills ; and the sixth was given to pass, 
without hurt, through the sharp wind, so violent that it tore up 
rocks, and so sharp that it cut like a knife.* 

One of the chief ceremonies at funerals was the killing of a techi- 
chi^ a domestic animal resembling a little dog, to accompany the 
deceased in their journey to the other world. They fixed a string 
about its neck, believing that necessary to enable it to pass the 
deep river of Chiuhuahuapan or New Waters. They buried the 
techichi, or burned it along with the body of its master, according 
to the kind of death he died. After burning the body, they gath- 
ered the ashes in an earthen pot, among which, according to the 
circumstances of the deceased, they put a gem of more or less 
value, which they said would serve him in the place of a heart in 
the other world. They buried this earthen pot in a deep ditch, 
and fourscore days after made oblations of bread and wine over it. 

* It is probable that the relatives of the dead paid for all these privileges. 

f From the description, the techichi appeared to be the hairless dog of Mex- 
ico. The Mexicans used its flesh for food. Dogs were the favorite food for In- 
dians. They likewise sacrificed them to the god of Storms. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



141 



Such were the funeral rites of the common people ; but at the 
death of kings, lords, or persons of high rank, some peculiar forms 
were observed. As soon as a king of Mexico happened to die, his 
death was published in great form. The) 7 laid the corpse upon 
beautiful, curiously wrought mats, which was attended and 
watched by his domestics. Upon the fourth or fifth day after, 
when the lords arrived, who brought with them rich dresses, beau- 
tiful feathers, and slaves, to be presented, they clothed the corpse 
in fifteen or more very fine habits of cotton of various colors, orna- 
mented it with gold, silver and gems, hung an emerald at the upper 
lip, which was to serve in place of a heart ; covered the face with 
a mask, and over the habits was placed the ensigns of that god in 
whose temple or area the ashes were to be buried. They cut off 
some of the hair, which, together with some more that had been 
cut off in the infancy of the king, they preserved in a little box, to 
perpetuate, as they said, the memory of the deceased. Upon the 
box they laid an image of the deceased, made of wood or of stone. 
Then they killed the slave who was his chaplain, who had had the 
care of his oratory and all that belonged to the private worship 
of his gods, in order that he might serve him in the same office in 
the other world. 

The funeral procession came next, in which the nobles carried 
a great standard of paper and the royal arms and ensigns. Upon 
their arrival at the lower area of the temple the high-priests, 
together with their servants, came out to meet the corpse, which, 
without delay, they placed upon the funeral pile, which was pre- 
pared there for that purpose. While the corpse and all its habits, 
the arms and ensigns, were burning, they sacrificed at the bottom 
of the stairs of the temple a great number of slaves, of those which 
belonged to the deceased, and also of those which had been pre- 
sented by the lords. Along with the slaves they likewise sacrificed 
some of the deformed men whom the king had collected in his 
palace for his amusement, in order that they might give him the 
same pleasure in the other world ; and, for the same reason, they 
used also to sacrifice some of his wives. The number of victims 
was proportioned to the grandeur of the funeral, and amounted 
sometimes, as several historians affirm, to two hundred. Among 
the other sacrifices, the techichi was not omitted ; they were firmly 
persuaded that, without such a guide, it would be impossible to 
get through some dangerous ways which led to the other world. 

The day following the ashes were gathered, and the teeth which 
remained entire ; they sought carefully for the emerald which had 
been hung to the upper lip, and the whole was put into the box 



142 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIII. 



with the hair, and they deposited the box in the place destined 
for his sepulchre. The four following days they made oblations 
of eatables over the sepulchre ; on the fifth they sacrificed some 
slaves, and also some others on the twentieth, fortieth, sixtieth, 
and eightieth day after. From that time forward they sacrificed 
no more human victims. 

The bodies of the dead were, in general, burned. There were 
no fixed places for burials. Many ordered their bodies to be 
buried near some temple or altar, some in fields, and others in 
those sacred places of the mountains where sacrifices used to be 
made. The ashes of the kings and lords were, for the most part, 
deposited in the towers of the temples, especially those of the great 
temple. Close to Teotihuacan there were many temples ; there 
were also innumerable sepulchres. The tombs of those whose 
bodies had been buried entire, agreeable to the testimony of the 
Anonymous Conqueror, who saw them, were deep ditches formed 
with stone and lime, within which they placed the bodies in a 
sitting posture upon low seats, together with the instruments of 
his art or profession. If it was the sepulchre of any military per- 
son, they laid a shield and sword by him ; if a woman a spindle, 
a weaver's shuttle, and a xicalli — a naturally-formed vessel. In 
the tombs of the rich they put gold and jewels, but all were pro- 
vided with eatables for the long journey they had to make. The 
Spanish conquerors, knowing of the gold which was buried with 
the Mexican lords in their tombs, dug up several and found con- 
siderable quantities of that precious metal. Cortes says, in his 
letters, that at one entry which he made into the capital when it 
was besieged by his army, his soldiers found fifteen hundred Cas- 
tellanos — that is, two hundred and forty ounces of gold — in one 
sepulchre which was in the tower of a temple. The Anonymous 
Conqueror says also that he was present at the digging up of 
another sepulchre from which they took about three thousand 
Castellanos. 

For the defence of places they made use of various kinds of 
fortifications, such as walls and ramparts, with their breastworks, 
palisades, ditches and entrenchments. Concerning the city of 
Quauhquechollan, we know that it was fortified by strong stone 
Avails, about twenty feet high and twelve feet in thickness. 

The conquerors, who describe to us the fortifications of this 
city, make mention likewise of several others, among which is the 
celebrated wall which the Tlascalans built on the eastern bounda- 
ries of the republic, to defend themselves from the invasion of the 
Mexican troops, and in other places. This wall, which stretched 



CHAP. XIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



143 



from one mountain to another, was six miles in length, eight feet 
in height, besides the breastworks, and eighteen feet in thickness. 
It was made of stone and strong fine mortar. There was but one 
narrow entrance, about eight feet broad and forty pares long. 
This was the space between the two extremities of the wall, the 
one of which encircled the other, forming two semicircles with 
one common centre. There are still some remains of this wall 
to be seen * 

Quauhquechollan, south, distant about four miles from Tepe- 
jacac, was a city containing from five thousand to six thousand 
families, pleasantly situated, and not less fortified by nature than 
by art. It was naturally defended on one side by a steep, rocky 
mountain, and on another side by two parallel-running rivers. 
The whole of the city was surrounded by a strong wall of stone 
and lime, about twenty feet high and twelve broad, with a breast- 
work all round of about three feet in height. There were but 
four ways to enter, at those places where the extremities of the 
walls were doubled, forming two semicircles (overlapping one an- 
other), with the passage between them. The difficulty of the 
entrance was increased by the elevation of the site of the city, 
which was almost equal to the height of the wall itself, so that in 
order to enter, it was necessary to ascend by some very steep steps. 

There are also still to be seen the remains of an ancient fortress 
built upon the top of a mountain, at a little distance from the 
village of Molcaxac, surrounded by four walls, placed at some 
distance from each other, from the base of the mountain unto the 
top. In the neighborhood appeared many small ramparts of 
stone and lime, and upon a hill two miles distant from the moun- 
tain are the remains of some ancient and populous city, of which, 
however, there is no memory among historians. About twenty- 
five miles from Cordova, towards the north, is likewise the ancient 
fortress of Quauhtocho, now Guatusco, surrounded by high walls 
of extremely hard stone, to which there is no entrance but by 
ascending a number of very high and narrow steps, for in this 
manner the entrances to these fortresses were formed. From the 
ruins of this ancient building, which is now overrun with bushes, 
a Cordovan gentleman lately dug out several well-finished statues 
of stones, for the ornament of his house. Near the ancient city 

* Francisco Severio Clavigero, born at Vera Cruz, South America, about 
1720 ; died at Cesena, in Italy, October, 1793. Cullen's English version of 
Clavigero' s " History of Mexico " in Italian, was published in 1787.— Chambers's 
Encyclopcedia. 



144 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIV. 



of Tezcuco, a part of the wall which surrounded the city of Coat- 
lichan is still preserved. 

In regarll to the Tlascalan wall, Bernal Diaz says: ''We came 
upon an enormous entrenchment, built so strongly of stone, lime 
and a kind of hard bitumen, that it would only have been pos- 
sible to break it down by means of pickaxes, and if defended 
would have with difficulty been taken. We halted on purpose 
to inspect this fortification, and Cortes inquired of the Zocotlans 
for what purpose it stood there. They told him it was built there 
by the Tlascaians, against the great Montezuma, with whom they 
were continually at war, to protect them against his hostile incur- 
sions." 

Torquemada says: " It was a wall of twenty feet in thickness; 
that it could be defended from the top ; had only one entrance, 
defended by other works within, and was built by a cacique of 
the country* to protect the boundaries of his country against 
the incursions of the Tlascaians. But the most singular fortifica- 
tions of Mexico were the temples themselves, and especially the 
great temple, which resembled a citadel. The wall which sur- 
rounded the whole of the temple, the five arsenals there which 
were filled with every sort of defensive and offensive arms, and 
the architecture of the temple itself, which rendered the ascent to 
it so difficult, give us clearly to understand that in such buildings 
policy as well as religion had a share, and that they constructed 
them not only from motives of superstition, but likewise for the 
purpose of defence. It is well known, from their history, that 
they fortified themselves in their temples when they could not 
hinder the enemy from entering the city, and from them har- 
assed them with arrows, darts and stories. "f 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Toltecs — Their Migration — Their Character — Their Knowledge of As- 
tronomy — Their National Extinction and Their Dispersion. 

The Toltecs the First Settlers of Anahuac. 

The history of the first peopling of Anahuac is so involved in 
fable that it is altogether impossible to discover the truth. There 
cannot be a doubt that the men who first peopled that country 

* Whom he calls Yztacmixtitlan. 
f Clavigero. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



145 



came originally from the more northern parts of America, where 
their ancestors had been settled for many ages, but who these 
first inhabitants were at the time of their emigration is entirely 
unknown. . 

The Toltecs are the oldest nation of which we have any knowl- 
edge, and that is very imperfect. Being banished, as they tell us, 
from their own country, Huehuetlapallan, which we take to have 
been in the kingdom of Tollan* from which they derived their 
name, and situated to the southwest of Mexico. They began their 
journey in the year 1, Tecpatl — that is, in the year 596 a.d. In 
every place to which they came they remained no longer than 
they liked it. In this wandering manner did they travel, always 
southward, for the space of one hundred and four years, till they 
arrived at a place to which they gave the name of Tollantzinco, 
about fifty miles to the east of that spot where, some centuries 
after, was founded the famous city of Mexico. 

They were led and commanded upon the whole journey by 
certain chiefs, who were reduced to seven by the time they 
arrived at Tollantzinco. They did not choose, however, to settle 
in that country. In less than twenty years after they went 
about forty miles -to the west, where, along the banks of a river, 
they founded the city of Tollan or Tula, after the name of their 
native country. That city, the oldest, as far as we know, in Ana- 
huac, is one of the most celebrated in the history of Mexico, 
and was the capital of the Toltecan kingdom. Their monarchy 
began in the year 607 a.d. and lasted three hundred and eighty- 
four years. 

The Toltecs were the most celebrated people of Anahuac for 
their superior civilization and skill in the arts. They always 
lived in society, collected in cities, under the government of kings 
and regular laws. They were not very warlike, and less trained 
to the exercise of arms than to the cultivation of the arts. The 
nations that have succeeded them have acknowledged themselves 
indebted to the Toltecs for their knowledge of the culture of grain, 
cotton, pepper, and other useful fruits. They had the art of cast- 
ing gold and silver and melting them into whatever form they 
pleased, and acquired the greatest reputation from cutting all 
kinds of gems ; but nothing, to us, raises their character so high 
as their having been the inventors, or, at least, the reformers of 
that system of the arrangement of time which was adopted by all 

* " Toltecotl, in Mexican, signifies a native of Tollan, as Tlazcaltecotl does a 
native of Tlescala." 

10 



146 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XIV. 



the nations of Anahuac, and which implies numerous observa- 
tions and a wonderfully correct astronomy. 

Boturini, upon the faith of the ancient histories of the Toltecas, 
says, that observing in their own county of Huehuetlapallan, how 
the solar }^ear exceeded the civil one, by which they reckoned, 
about six hours, they regulated it by interposing the intercalary 
day once in four years, which they did more than a hundred years 
before the Christian era. He says, besides, that in the year 660, 
under the reign of Ixtlalcuechahuac, in Tula, a celebrated astrono- 
mer called Huematzin assembled, by the king's consent, all the 
wise men of the nation, and with them painted that famous book 
called Teoamoxtli, or Divine Book, in which were represented in 
ver}^ plain figures the origin of the Indian, their journey in Asia, their 
first settlements upon the continent of America, the founding of 
the kingdom of Tula, and their progress till that time. There 
were described the heavens, the planets, the constellations, the 
Toltecan calendar with its cycles, the mythological transforma- 
tions, in which were included their moral philosophy, and the 
mysteries of their deities, concealed by hieroglyphics from common 
understanding, together with all that appertained to their religion 
and manners.* 

It is certain, however incredible as it may appear to the critics 
of Europe, who are accustomed to look upon the Americans as all 
equally barbarous, that the Mexicans and all the other civilized 
nations of Anahuac regulated their civil year according to the 
solar by means of the intercalary days, in the same manner as 
the Romans did after the Julian arrangement; and that this accu- 
racy was owing to the skill of the Toltecas. Their religion was 
idolatrous, and they appear by their history to have been the in- 
ventors of the greatest part of the mythology of the Mexicans ; 
but we do not know that they practiced those barbarous and 
bloody sacrifices which became afterwards so common among 
other nations. 

The Tezcucan historians believe the Toltecas the authors of that 
famous idol, representing the god of w T ater, placed on Mount 
Tlaloe.'f It is certain that they built in honor of their beloved god 

* This shows they must have been highly civilized and intelligent when they 
left Asia, or that they made wonderful progress in the short space of fifty-seven 
years from the founding of their city Tula, in Mexico. 

f This image was in the shape of a man sitting on a white and very light 
stone, Avith a vessel before him in which were some elastic gum and a variety of 
seeds. This was their yearly offering, by way of rendering thanks after having 
had a favorable harvest. This image was reckoned the oldest in that country, 



CHAP. XIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



147 



Quetzalcoatl, the highest pyramid of Cholula, and probably also 
the famous ones of Teotihuacan, in honor of the sun and moon, 
which are still in existence, though much disfigured. 

During the four centuries which the monarchy of the Toltecas 
lasted, they multiplied considerably, extending their population 
every way in numerous and large cities, but the direful calamities 
that happened to them in the first year of the reign of Topiltzin 
gave a fatal shock to their prosperity and power. For several 
years heaven denied to them the necessary showers to their fields 
and the earth, the fruits of which supported them. The air, in- 
fected with mortal contagion, filled daily the graves with the dead, 
and the minds of those surviving, with consternation at the de- 
struction of their countrymen. A great part of the nation died 
by famine and sickness. Topiltzin died in the second year, Tec- 
pail, in the twentieth of his reign, which was probably the year 1052 
of the vulgar era, and with him the Toltecan monarchy concluded. 
The wretched remains of the nation, willing to save themselves 
from the common calamity, sought timely relief to their misfor- 
tunes in other countries. Some directed their course to Onohu- 
alco, or Yucatan, some to Guatemala, while some families stopped 
in the kingdom of Tula and scattered themselves in the great val- 
ley where Mexico was afterwards founded ; some in Cholula, Tla- 
ximoloyan, and other places, and among these were the two sons 
of Topiltzin, whose descendants, in course of time, intermarried 
with the royal families of Mexico, Tezcuco and Colhuacan.* 

After the destruction of the Toltecas, for the space of one cen- 
tury, the land of Anahuac remained solitary and almost entirely 
depopulated, until the arrival of the Chechemecas.f 

for it had been placed upon that hill by the ancient Toltecas. It being replaced 
by another, the latter was struck by lightning, and the former then restored and 
continued to be preserved and worshipped until it was thrown down and broken 
by the order of the first bishop of Mexico. 

* The Toltecan Monarchy terminated probably in the year 1052 of the vul- 
gar era. Mexico, city, was founded ' in the year 1325.' The destruction of the 
Toltecan monarchy may be but one instance among many where the nations of 
America have perished by pestilence and famine, and probably wars have been 
the destruction of many more than have perished by pestilence and famine. "In 
large states the calamities in one part may be relieved by the prosperity in 
another, but in small states there are no such advantages, and the inhabitants 
perish or migrate." 

t Torquemada does not allow more than eleven years of interval between the 
destruction of the Toltecas and the arrival of the Chechemecas. Chechemecas 
is probably the same as Chetimecas, a tribe of Indians who dwelt on a lake near 
the Lafourche, in Louisiana, in the year 1703 ; the latter probably being de- 
scended from the former. 



148 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XV. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Mexican Chronology — Abbe Don Lorenzo Herva's Letter to the Abbe Don 
Francesco Saverio Clavigero, on the Mexican Calendar. 

The Mexicans, the Acolhuans, and all the other nations of Ana- 
huac, distinguished four ages of. time by as many suns. The first, 
named Atonatiuh, that is the sun, or the age of water, commenced 
with the creation of the world, and continued until the time at 
which almost all mankind perished in a general inundation along 
with the first sun. The second, Tlaltonatiuh, the age of earth, lasted 
from the time of the general inundation until the ruin of the 
giants, and the great earthquakes, which concluded in a like man- 
ner the second sun. The third, Ehecatonatiuh, the age of air, lasted 
from the destruction of the giants until the great whirlwinds, in 
which all mankind perished along with the third sun. The fourth, 
TIetonatiuh, the age of fire, began at the last restoration of the hu- 
man race, and was to continue until the fourth sun and the earth 
were destroyed by fire. This age, it was supposed, would end at 
the conclusion of one of their centuries, and thus we may account 
for these noisy festivals in honor of the god of fire, which were 
celebrated at the beginning of every century, as a thanksgiving for 
his restraining his voracity, and deferring the termination of the 
world. 

The Mexicans and other polished nations of Anahuac used the 
same methods to compute centuries, years and months, as the an- 
cient Toltecas. Their century consisted of fifty-two years, which 
were subdivided into four periods of thirteen years each, and two 
centuries formed an age of one hundred and four years, though 
some authors have given the name of century to their age, and 
that of half-century to their century, but it is of little consequence, 
as their manner of computing years and distributing time is not in 
the least altered by it. Their years had four names, which were 
Tochtli, rabbit; Acatl, cane ; Tecpatl, flint; and Colli, house; and of 
these with different numbers their century was composed. The 
first year of the century was 1, Tochtli; the second 2, Acatl; the 
third 3, Tecpatl; the fourth 4, Calli ; the fifth 5, Tochtli; and 
so on to the thirteenth year, which was 13, Tochtli and termi- 
nated the first period. They began the second period with 1, 
Acatl, which was succeeded by 2, Tecpatl; 3, Calli; 4, Tochtli, 
until it was completed by 13, Acatl. In like manner the third 



CHAP. XV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



149 



period began with 1, Tecpatl and finished with 13, Tecpatl ; and 
the fourth commenced with 1, Calli and terminated together with 
the century in 13, Calli ; so that, there being four names and thir- 
teen numbers, no one year could be confounded with another. 

The Mexican year consisted like ours of three hundred and 
sixty-five days ; for although it was composed of eighteen months 
each of twenty days, which made only three hundred and sixty, 
they added after the last month five days. The year 1, Tochtli, 
the first of their century, began on the 26th of February, but every 
four years the Mexican century anticipated a day on account of 
the odd day of our leap year, from whence in the last year of the 
Mexican century the year began on the 14th of February, on ac- 
count of the thirteen days which intervened in the course of fifty- 
two years. But at the expiration of the century the commence- 
ment of the year returned to the 26th of February. 

The names which they gave their months were taken both from 
the employments and festivals which occurred in them, and also 
from the accidents of the seasons which attended them. Their 
arrangement was not only different among different nations, but 
even among the Mexicans. 

Their months consisted of twenty days, their names are : 

1. Cipactli, 11. Ozomatli, 

2. Ehecatl, 12. Malinalli, 
a Calli, 13. Acatl, 

4. .Cuetzpalin, 14. Ocelotl, 

5. Coatl, 15. Quauhtli, 

6. Miquiztli, 16. Cozcaquahtli, 

7. Mazatl, 17. Olin tonatiuh, 

8. Tochtli, 18. Tecpatl, 

9. Atl, 19. Quiahuitl, 
10. Itzcuintli, 20. Xochitl. 

In their mode of reckoning no regard was paid to the division 
of months, nor that of years, but to periods of thirteen days 
(similar to those of thirteen years in a century), which ran on 
without interruption from the end of a month or year. The first 
day of the century was 1, Cipactli; the second 2, Ehecatl, or 
wind; the third 3, Calli, a home; and so on to thirteen, which 
was 13, Acatl, or reed. The fourteenth day began another 
period, reckoning 1st, Ocelotl (tiger) ; 2d, Quauhtli (eagle), etc., 
until the completion of the month ; 7, Xochitl (flower) ; and in 
the next month they continued to count 8, Cipactli; 9, Ehe- 
catl, etc. Twenty of these periods made in thirteen months a 
cycle of two hundred and sixty days, and during the whole of 



150 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XV. 



this time the same sign or character was not repeated with the 
same number. On the first day of the fourteenth month another 
c^ycle commenced in the same order of the characters, and of the 
same number of periods as the first. If the year had not, besides 
the eighteen months, had the five days called Nemontemi, or if the 
periods had not been continued in these days, the first day of the 
second year of the century would have been the same with that 
of the preceding 1st Cipactli ; and in like manner the last day of 
every year would always have been Xochitl ; but as the period of 
thirteen days was continued through the days called Nemontemi, 
on that account the signs or characters changed place, and the 
sign Miquiztli, which occupied in all the months of the first year 
the sixth place, occupies the first in the second year; and on the 
other hand the sign Cipactli, which in the first year had occupied 
the first place, has the sixteenth in the second year. To know 
what ought to be the sign of the first day of any year, there is 
the following general rule : Every year Tochtli begins with Cip- 
actli ; every year Acatl with Miquiztli ; Tecpactl with Ozomatli ; 
and Calli with Cozcaquahtli, adding always the number of the 
year to the sign of the day ; as, for example, the year 1st Tochtli 
has for the first day 1st Cipactli ; so the second, Acatl, has 2d 
Miquiztli ; the third, Tecpactl, has three, Ozomatli ; and, fourth, 
Calli has four, Cozaquahtli, etc.* 

From what we have already said it will appear that the num- 
ber thirteen was held in high estimation by the Mexicans. The 
four periods of which the century consisted were each of thirteen 
years ; the thirteen months formed their cycle of two hundred 
and sixty days, and thirteen days their smaller periods. The 
origin of their esteem for this number was, according to what 
Siguenza has said, that thirteen was the number of their greater 
gods. The number four seems to have been no less esteemed 
among them. As they reckoned four periods of thirteen years 
each to their century, they also reckoned thirteen 'periods of four 
years, at the expiration of each of which they made extraordinary 
festivals. 

In respect to civil government, they divided the month into 
four periods of five days, and on a certain fixed day of each period 
their fair or great market was held ; but being governed, even in 

* 11 Boturini says the year of the Rabbit ( Tochtli) began uniformly with the 
day of the Rabbit, the year of the Cane with the day of the Cane, etc., and 
never with the days we have mentioned ; but we ought to give more faith to 
Siguenza, who certainly was better informed in Mexican antiquity than Botur- 
ini. The system of this gentleman is fantastical and full of contradictions." 



CHAP. XV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



151 



political matters, by principles of religion in the capital, this fair 
was kept on the days of the Rabbit, the Cane, the Flint, and the 
House, which were their favorite signs. 

The Mexican year consisted of seventy-three periods of thirteen 
days, and the century of seventy-three periods of thirteen months, 
or cycles of two hundred and sixty days. 

It is certainly not to be doubted that the Mexican or Toltecan 
system of the distribution of time was extremely well digested, 
though at first view it appears rather intricate and perplexed ; 
hence we may infer with confidence that it was not the work of a 
rude or unpolished people. That, however, which is most sur- 
prising is their method of computing time, and what will cer- 
tainly appear improbable to readers who are but little informed 
with respect to Mexican antiquity, is, that having discovered the 
excess of a few hours in the solar above the civil year, they made 
use of intercalary days to bring them to an equality, but with this^ 
difference in regard to the method established by Julius Caesar 
in the Roman calendar, that they did not interpose a day every 
four years, but thirteen days every fifty -two years, which produces 
the same regulation of time. At the expiration of the century 
they broke all their kitchen utensils, fearing that then, also the 
fourth age, the sun and all the world were to be ended, and the 
last night they performed the famous ceremony of the new fire. 
As soon as they were assured by the new fire that a new century 
was granted them by the gods, they employed the thirteen follow- 
ing days in supplying their kitchen utensils, in furnishing new 
garments, in repairing their temples and houses, and in making 
every preparation for the grand festival of the new century. These 
thirteen days were the intercalary days represented in their paint- 
ings by blue points. They were not included in the century just 
expired, nor in that which was just commencing, nor did they 
continue in them their period of da}^s, which they always reck- 
oned from the first day to the last day of this century. When 
the intercalary days were elapsed, they began the new century 
with the year 1, Tochtli, and the day 1, Cipactli, upon the 26th 
day of our February, as they did at the beginning of the preced- 
ing century. We would not venture to relate these particulars if 
we were not supported by the testimony of Dr. Siguenza, who, in 
addition to his great learning, his critical skill and sincerity, was 
the person who most diligently exerted himself to illustrate these 
points, and consulted both the best instructed Mexicans and Tez- 
cucans, and studied their histories and paintings. 

Two things must appear truly strange in the Mexican system. 



152 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XV. 



The one is, that they do not regulate their months by the changes 
of the moon ; the other, that they use no particular character to 
distinguish one century from another. But with respect to the 
first, we do not mean that their astronomical months did not accord 
with the lunar periods, because we know that their year was justly 
regulated by the sun, and because they used the same name, which 
was Metztli, indifferently for month or moon. The month now 
mentioned by us is their religious month, according to which they 
observed the celebration of festivals and practiced divination ; not 
their astronomical months, of which we know nothing, unless that 
it was divided into two periods — that is, into the period of watch- 
ing, and into that of sleep, of the moon. We are, however, per- 
suaded that they must have made use of some character to distin- 
guish one century from another, as this distinction was so very 
easy and necessary ; but we have not been able to ascertain this 
upon the authority of any historian. 

The distribution of the signs or characters, both of days and 
years, served the Mexicans as superstitious prognostics, according 
to which they predicted the fortunes of infants from the sign 
under which they were born, and the happiness or misfortune of 
marriages, the success of wars, and of every other thing from the 
day on which they were undertaken or put in execution. To 
represent the month they painted a circle divided into twenty 
figures, signifying twenty days. To represent the year they painted 
another which they divided into eighteen figures of the eighteen 
months, and frequently painted within the circle the image of the 
moon. The century was represented by a circle divided into fifty- 
two figures, or, rather by four figures which were thirteen times 
designed. They used to paint a serpent twisted about the circle, 
which pointed out, by four twists of his body, the four principal 
winds, and the beginning of the four periods of thirteen years. 

The method adopted by the Mexicans to compute months, }^ears, 
and centuries was common to all the polished nations of Anahuac, 
without any variation except in the names and figures. The Chia- 
panese, who among the tributaries to the crown of Mexico were 
the most distant from the capital, instead of the names and the 
figures of the Rabbit, the Cane, Flint and House, made use of 
the names of Votan, Lambat, Been and Chinau ; and instead of 
the names of the Mexican days, they adopted the names of twenty 
illustrious men among their ancestors, among which the four 
names above mentioned occupied the same places that the names 
Rabbit, Cane, Flint and House held among the Mexican days. 

The following is an abridgment of a letter upon the Mexican 



CHAP. XV.] 



OF AMERICA, 



153 



Calendar, addressed by the Abbe Don Lorenzo Hervas to Clavi- 
gero : 

From the work of your Reverence, I learn with infinite pain 
how much is to be regretted the loss of those documents which 
assisted the celebrated De Siguenza to form his Ciclography ; and 
the Cav. Boturini to publish his " Idea of the General History of 
New Spain." 

The year and century have from time immemorial been regu- 
lated by the Mexicans with a degree of intelligence which does not 
at all correspond with their arts and sciences. In them they were 
certainly extremely inferior to the Greeks and Romans ; but the 
discernment which appears in their calendar equals those of the 
most cultivated nations. Hence we ought to imagine that this 
calendar has not been the discovery of the Mexicans, but a com- 
munication from some more enlightened people. And as the last 
are not to be found in America, we must seek for them elsewhere, 
in Asia or in Egypt. This supposition is confirmed by your affir- 
mation that the Mexicans had their calendar from the Toltecas 
(originating from Asia), whose year, according to Boturini, was 
exactly adjusted by the course of the sun more than a hundred 
years before the Christian era, and also from observing that other 
nations, namely, the Chiapanese, made use of the same calendar 
with the Mexicans, without any difference but that of their sym- 
bols. 

The Mexican year began upon the 26th of February, a day cele- 
brated in the era of Nabonassar, which was fixed by the Egyptians 
seven hundred and forty-seven years before the Christian era, for 
the beginning of their month Toth, corresponded with the meridian 
of the same day. If these priests fixed also upon this day as an 
epoch, because it was celebrated in Egypt* we have then the 
Mexican calendar agreeing with the Egyptian. But independent 
of this, it is certain that the Mexican calendar conformed greatly 
with the Egyptian. 

On this subject Herodotus saysf that the year was first regulated 
by the Egyptians, who gave to it twelve months of thirty days, 
and added five days to every year, that the circle of the year 
might revolve regularly ; that the principal gods of Egypt were 
twelve in number ; and that each month was under the tutelage 

* " On the 26th day of February of the above-mentioned year, the year, ac- 
cording to the meridian of Alexandria, which was built three centuries after, 
properly began." — Q. Curt., lib. iv., c. 21. (See La Lande Astronomie, n. 
1597. ) 

t Herod., lib. ii., cap. 1 and 6. 



154 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XV. 



and protection of one of these gods. The Mexicans also added 
to every year five days which they called Nemontemi, or useless, 
because during these they did nothing. Plutarch says,* that in 
such days the Egyptians celebrated the festival of the birth of 
their gods. 

It is certainly true that the Mexicans divided their year into 
eighteen months, not into twelve, like the Egyptians ; but, as they 
called the month miztli, or moon, it seems undeniable that their 
ancient month had been lunar, as well as that of the Egyptian 
and Chinese, the Mexican month verifying that which the Scrip- 
tures tell, that the month is obliged for its name to the moon.f The 
Mexicans, it is probable, received the lunar month from their 
ancestors, but for certain purposes afterwards instituted another. 
You have affirmed in your history, upon the faith of Boturini, 
that the Miztecas formed their year into thirteen months, which 
number was sacred in the calendar of the Mexicans, on account 
of their thirteen principal gods, in the same manner as the Egyp- 
tians consecrated the number twelve on account of their twelve 
great gods. 

The symbols and periods of years, months, and days in the 
Mexican calendar is truly admirable. With respect to the periods, 
it appears to me that the period of five days might not improperly 
be termed their civil week, and that of thirteen their religious 
week. In the same manner the period of twenty days might 
be called their civil month, that of twenty-six their religious 
month, and that of thirty their lunar and astronomical month. 
In their century it is probable that the period of four years was 
civil and that of thirteen religious. From the multiplication of 
these two periods they had their century, and from the duplication 
of their century their age of one hundred and four years. In all 
those periods an art is discovered not less admirable than that of 
our indictions, cycles, etc. The period of civil weeks was contained 
exactly in their civil and astronomical months ; the latter had 
six, the former four, and the year contained seventy-three com- 
plete weeks, in which particular our method is excelled by the 
Mexican ; for our weeks are not contained exactly in the month 
nor in the year. The period of religious weeks was contained 
twice in their religious month and twenty-eight times in the year ; 
but in the latter there remained a day over, as there is in our 

* Plutarch, de Isike Osiride. 

f The Abbe must have thought all his readers were, or ought to be, as well 
versed in the sacred Scriptures as himself, since he has no note of reference in 
regard to this statement. 



CHAP. XV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



155 



weeks. From the period of thirteen days multiplied by the twenty 
characters of the month, the cycle of three hundred and sixty days 
was produced ; but, as there remained a day over the twenty-eight 
religious weeks of the solar year, there arose another cycle of two 
hundred and sixty days in such a manner that the Mexicans 
could from the first day of every year distinguish what year it 
was. The period of civil months multiplied by the number of 
days (that is, eighteen by twenty) and the period of the lunar 
months multiplied by the number of days (that is, twelve by 
thirty), gave the same product, or the number three hundred and 
sixty — a number certainly not less memorable, and in use among 
the Mexicans, then among the most ancient nations, and a num- 
ber which, from time immemorial, has ruled in geometry and 
astronomy, and is of the utmost particularity, on account of its re- 
lation to the circle, which is divided into three hundred and sixty 
parts or degrees. In no nation of the world do we meet with any- 
thing similar to this clear and distinct method of calendar. From 
the small period of four years multiplied by the above-mentioned 
cycle of two hundred and sixty years, arose another admirable 
cycle of ten hundred and forty years. The Mexicans combined 
the small period of four years with the period above-named 
of thirteen years ; thence resulted their noted cycle or century of 
fifty-two years ; and thus, with the four figures, indicating the 
period of four years, they had, as we have from the Dominical 
Letters, a period which, to say the truth, excelled ours, as it is 
of twenty-eight years and the Mexican of fift^-two ; this was per- 
petual, and ours in Gregorian years is not so. So much variety 
and simplicity of periods, of weeks, months, years, and cycles, 
cannot be unadmired, and the more so as there is immediately 
discovered that particular relation which these periods have to 
many different ends, which Boturini points out by saying : " The 
Mexican calendar was of four species — that is, natural, for agricul- 
ture ; chronological, for history ; ritual, for festivals ; astronomical, for 
the course of the stars, and the year was lunisolar." This year, 
if we do not put it at the end of three Mexican ages, after several 
calculations I am not able to find it. 

Eclipses are noted in Mexican paintings. Although all the cir- 
cumstances of eclipses are not described, yet the defects of them 
are remedied by many eclipses which are marked there. 

Respecting the symbols of the Mexican months and year, they 
discover ideas entirely conformable with those of the ancient 
Egyptians. The latter distinguished, as appears from their monu- 
ments, each month or part of the zodiac, where the sun stood, 



156 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XV. 



with characteristic figures of that which happened in every sea- 
son of the year. Therefore we see the signs of Aries, Taurus, and 
the two young Goats (which now are Gemini) used to mark the 
months of the birth of these animals ; the signs of Cancer, Leo, and 
Virgo, with the ear of corn, for those months in which the sun 
goes backward like a crab, in which there is great heat, and in 
which the harvests are reaped. The sign of the Scorpion (which, 
in the Egyptian sphere, occupied the space which at present is 
occupied by the sign Libra), and that of Sagittarius, in the months 
of virulent or contagious distempers, and the chase; and, lastly, 
the signs of Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, in those months in 
which the sun begins to ascend towards others, in which it rains 
much, and in which there is abundant fishing. These ideas, at 
least, are similar to those which the Mexicans associated with their 
clime. They called their first month, which began on the 26th of 
February, Acahualco — that is, the cessation of water — and they 
symbolized this month by a house with the figure of water above 
it ; they gave also to the same month the name Quahuitlehua — 
that is, the moving or budding of trees. The first Acahualco did 
not correspond with their climate, where the rains came in Octo- 
ber, but it agrees with the fields of Senna and the northern climes 
of America from whence their ancestors came.* The symbol of 
the second Mexican month was a pavilion. The symbol of the 
third month was a bird that appeared at that time. The twelfth 
and thirteenth months had for their S3^mbol the plant pactli, which 
springs up and matures in these months. The symbol of the 
fourteenth month was expressed by a cord and a hand which 
pulled it, expressive of the binding power of the cold in that 
month, which is January ; and to this same circumstance the 
name Tititl, which they gave it, alludes. The constellation Kefil, 
of which Job speaks to signify winter, signifies in the Arabic root 
(which is Kefal) to be cold and asleep, and in the text of Job it is 
read, " Couldst thou break the cords or ties of Kefil?" 

Lastly, the symbol which you have put for the Mexican century 
convinces me that it is the same which the ancient Egyptians and 
Chaldeans had. In the Mexican symbol, we see the sun as it were 
eclipsed by the moon, and surrounded with a serpent, which 
makes four twists and embraces the four periods of thirteen years. 
This very idea of the serpent with the sun has, from time im- 
memorial in the world, signified the periodical and annual course 

* If it conforms with the climate of Karakorum, it would give an additional 
reason for believing that the Toltecs came from that region where is the river 
and desert of Tolla or Tula. 



CHAP. XV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



157 



of the sun. We know that in astronomy, the points where the 
eclipses happen have, from time immemorial, been called the 
head and tail of a dragon. The Chinese, from false ideas, though 
conformable to this immemorial allusion, believe that at eclipses a 
dragon is in the act of devouring the sun. The Egyptians more 
particularly agree with the Mexicans, for to symbolize the sun 
they employed a circle, with one or two serpents ; but still more 
the ancient Persians, among whom their Mitras (which was cer- 
tainly the sun) was symbolized by a sun and a serpent ; and from 
Montfaucon we are given in his "Antiquities " a monument of a ser- 
pent, which, surrounding the signs of the zodiac, cuts them, by 
rolling itself in various modes about them. In addition to these 
incontestable examples, the following reflection is most convincing: 
There is not a doubt that the symbol of the serpent is a thing 
totally arbitrary to signify the sun, to which it has no physical re- 
lation j wherefore then, I ask, have so many nations dispersed over 
the globe, and of which some have had no reciprocal intercourse, 
unless in the first ages of the deluge, agreed in using one same sym- 
bol so arbitrary, and chose to express by it the same object ? 
When we find the word sacco in the Hebrew, Greek, Teutonic, 
Latin, languages, etc., it obliges us to believe that it belongs to the 
primitive language of men after the deluge, and when we see one 
same arbitrary symbol, signifying the sun in his course, used by 
the Mexicans, the Chinese, the ancient Egyptians and Persians, 
does it not prompt us to believe that the real origin of it was in 
the time of Noah or the first men after the deluge ? This fair con- 
clusion is strongly confirmed by the Chiapanese Calendar (which 
is totally Mexican). Many similar reflections are suggested by the 
observations and remarks which occur in your history, etc. 
Cesena, July 31, 1780. 

So far the letter of Sig. Ab. Hervas. 

Whatever may have been the truth respecting the use of the 
solar year among these first men, in which dispute I do not mean 
to engage, I cannot be persuaded that the Mexicans, or the Toltecas, 
have been indebted to any nation of the old continent for their 
calendar and their method of computing time. From whom did 
the Toltecas learn their age of one hundred and four years ; their 
century of fifty-two years ; their year of eighteen months ; their 
months of twenty days ; their periods of thirteen years and thirteen 
days; their cycle of two hundred and sixty days; and in particu- 
lar their thirteen intercalary days at the end of the century, to 
adjust the year with the course of the sun ? The Egyptians were 



158 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XVI. 



the greatest astronomers of those remote times, but they adopted 
no intercalary space to adjust the year to the annual retardation 
of the solar course. If the Toltecas of themselves discovered that 
retardation, it is not to be wondered at if they discovered other 
things which did not require such minute and prolix astronomical 
observations. Boturini, of whose testimony Abbe Hervas avails 
himself, says expressly, upon the faith of the annals of the Tol- 
tecas, which he saw, that the ancient astronomers of that nation 
having observed in their native country, Huehuetlapallen (a north- 
ern country of America), the excess of about six hours of the solar 
over the civil year which was observed among them, corrected it 
by the use of intercalary days, more than one hundred years be- 
fore the Christian era. — Qlavigero. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Mexican Festivals — The Worship of Fire — Fathers Garces and Font's Visit to 
the Gila and the Moqui — The Rio Grande Basin — The Pueblos of the Rio 
Grande — The Rio Verde — The Rio Gila — Casa Blanca or Casa Montezuma 
and Casa Grande of the Gila — The Casas Grandes of the Rio Casas Grandes 
— New Mexico When First Discovered — The Journey of Espejo through 
New Mexico in 1582 — Its Cities and People in 1582. 

There was no month in which the Mexicans did not celebrate 
some festival or other, which was either fixed and established to 
be held on a certain day of the month, or movable, from being 
annexed to some signs which did not correspond with the same 
days in every year. The principal movable festivals, according to 
Boturini, were sixteen in number, among which the fourth was 
that of the god of wine, and the thirteenth that of the god of fire. 

In the third month, which began the 7th of April, those who 
traded in flowers celebrated the festival of the goddess Goatlicue, 
and presented her garlands of flowers. But before this offering 
was made, no person was allowed to smell these flowers. The 
ministers of the temples watched every night of this month, and 
on that account made great fires. 

In the eighth month, which began the 16th of July, they made 
a solemn festival to the goddess Centeotl. The festival continued 
eight days. At sunset, when the feasting of the populace was 
ended, the priests had their dances, which continued four hours, 
and on that account there was a splendid illumination in the temple. 

The tenth month, the beginning of which was on the 25th of 
August, they kept the festival of Xiuhteuctli, god of fire. 



CHAP. XVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



159 



In the fourteenth month, which commenced on the 13th of No- 
vember, was the festival of Mixcoatl, goddess of the chase. It was 
preceded by four days of rigid and general fasting, accompanied 
with the effusion of blood, during which time they made arrows 
and darts for the supply of their arsenals, and also small arrows 
which they placed, together with pieces of pine and some meats, 
upon the tombs of their relations, and after one day burned them. 

In the eighteenth and last month, which began the 1st of Feb- 
ruary, the second festival of the god of fire was held, and the tenth 
day of this month the whole of the Mexican youth went out to the 
chase, not only of wild beasts in the woods, but also to catch the 
birds of the lake. On the sixteenth the fire of the temple and private 
houses ivas extinguished, and they kindled it anew before the idol of 
that god. 

The festival which was celebrated every fifty-two years was by 
far the most splendid, and the most solemn, not only among the 
Mexicans, but likewise among all the nations of that empire, or 
which were neighboring to it. On the last night of this century 
they extinguished the fires of all the temples and houses, and 
broke their vessels, earthen pots, and all other kitchen utensils,* 
preparing themselves in this manner for the end of the world, 
which at the termination of each century they expected with 
terror. The priests, clothed in various dresses and ensigns of their 
gods, and accompanied by a vast crowd of people, issued from the 
temple out of the city, directing their way toward the mountain 
Huixachtla, near the city of Iztapalapan, upwards of six miles dis- 
tant from the capital. They regulated their journey in some 
measure by observation of the stars, in order that they might 
arrive at the mountain a little before midnight, on the top of which 
the new fire was to be kindled. In the meantime the people re- 
mained in the utmost suspense and solicitude. All those who did 
not go out with the priests mounted upon terraces to observe from 
thence the event of the ceremony. The office of kindling the fire 
on this occasion belonged exclusively to a priest of Copolco, one of 
the districts of the city. The instruments for this purpose were 
two pieces of wood, and the place in which the fire was produced 
from them was the breast of some brave prisoner whom they sac- 
rificed. As soon as the fire was kindled, they all at once exclaimed 
with joy ; and a great fire was made on the mountain, that it 
might be seen from afar, in which they afterwards burned the 

* May not this custom in part account for the broken pottery found scattered 
everywhere where there has been an ancient settlement ? 



160 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVI. 



victim whom they had sacrificed. Immediately they took up por- 
tions of the sacred fire, and strove with each other who should 
carry it most speedily to their houses. The priests carried it to 
the great Temple of Mexico, from whence all the inhabitants of that 
capital were supplied with it. During the thirteen days which 
followed the renewal of the fire (which were the intercalary days 
interposed between the past and the ensuing century to adjust the 
year with the course of the sun) they employed themselves in 
whitening and repairing the public and private buildings, and in 
furnishing themselves with new dresses and domestic utensils, in 
order that everything might be new, or at least appear to be so, 
upon the commencement of the new century.* 

The ancient worship of fire existed among the American In- 
dians from time immemorial. It is found in the traditions as in 
the history of almost all nations which have had temples and 
altars in which was a pyre, a hearth, a brazier, in order to enter- 
tain continually the fire used in their sacrifices. The Greeks 
adored fire under the name of Haitos, and the Latins under the 
name of Vesta.f Father Charlevoix represents the tribes of Loui- 
siana, and especially the ancient tribe of the Natchez, as keeping 
up a perpetual fire in all their temples. Among the Moquis of 
New Mexico the sacred fire is constantly maintained by aged 
men. They believe that great misfortunes would afflict the whole 
tribe should the fire be extinguished. 

The superstitious devotion to fire was general among the Mexi- 
cans at the period of the conquest. The Potawatomies say that 
Chipiapoos, or the Dead Man, is the great manitou that presides 
in the country of souls, and there maintains the sacred fire for 
the happiness of all those of his race who arrive there. Fire is, 
in all the Indian tribes that I have known, an emblem of happi- 
ness or of good fortune. It is kindled before all their delibera- 
tions. " Having extinguished the enemy's fire " signifies with 
them to have gained the victory. They attribute to fire a sacred 
character, which is remarkable everywhere in their usages and 
customs, especially in their religious ceremonies. They generally 
maintain mysterious ideas concerning the substance and phenome- 
na of fire, which they consider supernatural. To see a fire rising 

* Clavigero. 

f Moses kept the flocks of Jethro. He led the flock to the back side of the 
desert and came to the mountain of Horeb, the mountain of God. And the 
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of flre. This probably is the 
earliest mention of fire in connection with religion, and this fire was on the 
mountain of God. 



CHAP. XVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



161 



mysteriously in their dreams or otherwise is the symbol of the 
passage of the soul into the other world. Before consulting the 
manitous, or tutelary spirits, or before addressing the dead, they 
begin by kindling the sacred fire. This fire must be struck from 
a flint, or reach them mysteriously by lightning, or in some other 
way. To light the sacred fire with common fire would be consid- 
ered among them as a grave and dangerous transaction. 

The Chippewas of the north kindle a fire on every new tomb, 
during four successive nights. They say that this symbolical 
and sacred light illumined their solitary and obscure passage to 
the country of souls.* 

A portion of the population of New Mexico consists of Indians, 
called Pueblos, from the fact of their living in towns, who are in a 
semi-civilized state, and in whose conditions may be traced an 
analogy to the much exaggerated civilization of the ancient Mexi- 
cans. The Pueblo Indians construct and inhabit houses and vil- 
lages of the same form and material as the " casas grandes " of the 
ancient Mexicans, retain many of their customs and domestic 
arts as they have been handed down to us, and numerous traces 
of a common origin. 

Among many of the forms still retained by these people, per- 
haps the most interesting is the perpetuation of the holy fire, by the 
side of which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return 
to earth of Quetzalcoatl, the god of air, who, according to their 
tradition, visited the earth and instructed the inhabitants in agri- 
culture and other useful arts. During his sojourn he caused the 
earth to yield tenfold productions. The lazy Mexicans naturally 
look back to this period as the "golden age;" and as this popular 
and beneficent deity on his departure from earth promised faith- 
fully to return and visit the people he loved so well, this event is 
confidently expected to this day.f Quetzalcoatl embarked on the 
Gulf of Mexico, and as he was seen to steer to the eastward, his 
arrival is consequently looked for from that quarter.! When the 

* "History of the Western Missions and Missionaries of the United States," 
by Kev. P. J. De Smet. 

f George F. Buxton, Esq., member of the Royal Geographical Society, the 
Ethnological Society, etc., travelled from Mexico to Leavenworth in the period 
from July 2, 1846, to July, 1847. 

X Clavigero merely says : "Soine people said that he suddenly disappeared ; 
others that he had died upon that coast " — the Gulf of Coatzacualco. Coatza- 
cualco, a province extending along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico — the pro- 
vince of Vera Cruz — to the Isthmus of Tehuan tepee. Considering the direction, 
might not Quetzalcoatl have been a missionary from the City of Uxmal, in Yu- 
catan, whose ruins indicate the highest degree of civilization on the continent, 
and the centre of a powerful hierarchy. 

11 



162 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XVI. 



Spaniards arrived from the east, they were at first generally sup- 
posed to be messengers from or descendants of the god of air. 

This tradition is common to the nations even of the far-off 
north, and in New Mexico the belief is still clung to by the 
Pueblo Indians, who, in a solitary cave of the mountain, have for 
centuries continued their patient vigils by the undying Jive. 

Far to the north, in the country of the Moquis, the hunters 
have passed, wonderingly, ruins of large cities and towns, inhab- 
ited by Indians, of the same construction as those of the Pueblos, 
and identical with the casas grandes on the Gila and elsewhere. 

Although the Pueblos are nominally Christians and have em- 
braced the outward forms of the holy Catholic faith, they yet, in 
fact, still cling to the belief of their fathers, and celebrate in 
secret the ancient rites of their religion. The aged and devout 
of both sexes inay still be often seen on their flat housetops with 
their faces turned to the rising sun, and their gaze fixed in that 
direction from whence they expect, sooner or later, the god of 
air (Quetzalcoatl) will make his appearance.* 

The most southern part of the intendancy of Sonora bears the 
name of Pimeria, on account of a numerous tribe of Pimas In- 
dians who inhabited it. Farther north, on the right bank of the 
Rio de la Ascencion, live a very warlike race of Indians, the Seris, 
to whom several Mexican savants attribute an Asiatic origin, on 
account of the analogy between their name and that of the Seri 
placed by ancient geographers at the foot of the mountains of 
Ottocorras, to the east of Scythia extra Imaum. Two enterpris- 
ing and courageous monks, Fathers Garces and Font, were able, 
however, to go by land through the countries inhabited by inde- 
pendent Indians from the missions of La Pimera Alta to Monterey, 
and even to the port of San Francisco. This bold enterprise has 
also furnished new information relative to the ruins of La Casa 
Gfrande, considered by the Mexican historians as the abode of the 
Aztecs on their arrival at the Rio Gila, towards the end of the 
twelfth century. 

Father Francisco Garces, accompanied by Father Font, who 
was intrusted with the observation of latitude, set out from the 
Presidio d'Horcasitas on the 20th of April, 1773. After a journey 
of eleven days they arrived at a vast and beautiful plain, one 
league distant from the south bank of the Rio Gila. They there 
discovered the ruins of an ancient Aztec city, in the midst of 
which is the edifice called La Casa Grande [13]. These ruins 
occupy a space of ground of more than a square league. The 

* Buxton. 



CHAP. XVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



163 



Casa Grande is exactly laid down according to the four cardinal 
points, having exactly from north to south one hundred and thirty- 
six metres (four hundred and forty-five feet) in length, and from east 
to west eighty-four metres (two hundred and seventy-six feet) in 
breadth. It is constructed of clay (tapia). The pises are of an 
equal size, but symmetrically placed ;* the walls twelve deci- 
metres (three feet eleven inches) in thickness. We perceive that 
this edifice had three stories and a terrace. The stair was on the 
outside, and probably of wood. The same kind of construction 
is still to be found in all the villages of the independent Indians 
of the Moqui west from New Mexico. We perceive in the 
Casa Grande five apartments, of which each is 8.3 metres in 
length, 3.3 metres in breadth, and 3.5 metres in height 
(27.18 feet, 10.82 feet, and 11.48 feet;. A wall, interrupted 
by large towers, surrounds the principal edifice, and appears to 
have defended it. Father Garces discovered the vestiges of an 
ancient canal, which brought the water from the Kio Gila to the 
town. The whole surrounding plain is covered with broken 
earthen pitchers and pots, prettily painted in white, red and 
blue. We also find amidst these fragments of Mexican stone- 
ware, pieces of obsidian (itztli). We must not, however, con- 
found the ruins of this city of the Gila, the centre of the ancient 
civilization of the Americans, with the Casas Grandes of New 
Biscay, situated between the presidio of Yanos and that of San 
Buenaventura. The latter are pointed out by the indigenous on 
the very vague supposition that the Aztec nation, in its migrations 
from Aztlan to Tula and the valley of Tenochtitlan made three 
stations, the first near the Lake Tiguyo, the second at the Rio 
Gila, and the third in the environs of Yanos. 

The Indians who live in the plains adjoining the Casas Grandes 
of the Gila, and who have never had the smallest communication 
with the Indians of Sonora, deserve by no means the appellation 
of Indos bravos. Their social civilization forms a singular contrast 
with the state of the savages who wander along the banks of the 
Missouri and other parts of Canada. Fathers Garces and Font 
found the Indians to the south of the Gila clothed and assembled 
together to the number of two thousand or three thousand, in vil- 
lages, where they peaceably cultivated the soil. They saw fields 
sown with maize, cotton and gourds (pumpkins, probably). The 
missionaries, in order to bring about the conversion of these In- 

* It is built of layers of concrete, in sections. The sections were formed in 
a frame-work and made continuously, probably until the whole circuit of the 
building was surrounded. — Emory. 



164 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVI. 



dians, showed them a picture painted on a large piece of cotton 
cloth, in which a sinner was represented burning in the flames of 
hell. The picture terrified them, and they entreated Father Garces 
not to unroll it any more, nor speak to them of what would hap- 
pen after death. These Indians are of a gentle and sincere char- 
acter. Father Font explained to them, by an interpreter, the 
security which prevailed in the Christian missions, where an In- 
dian alcalde administered justice. The chief of Uturicut replied : 
" This order of things may be necessary for you. We do not steal, 
and we very seldom disagree. What use have we, then, for an 
alcalde among us?" The civilization to be found among the In- 
dians, as we approach the northwest coast of America, from the 
33d to the 34th degree of north latitude, is a very striking phe- 
nomenon, which cannot but throw some light on the history of 
the first migrations of the Mexican nations. 

Father Garces, in 1773, visited the country of the Moqui, watered 
by the Rio de Yaquesila. He was astonished to find there an In- 
dian town with two great squares, houses of several stories, and 
streets well laid out, and parallel to one another. Every evening 
the people assembled together on the terraces of which the roofs of 
the houses are formed. The construction of the edifices of the 
Moqui is the same as that of the Casas Grandes, on the banks 
of the Gila. The Indians who inhabit the northern part of New 
Mexico give also a considerable elevation to their houses, for the 
sake of discovering the approach of their enemies. Everything in 
this country appears to announce traces of the cultivation of the 
ancient Mexicans. We are informed, even by Indian traditions, 
that twenty leagues north from the Moqui, near the mouth of the 
Rio Zaquanawas, the banks of the Nabajoa were the first abode of 
the Aztecs after their departure from Aztlan. On considering the 
civilization which exists on several points of the northwest coast of 
America, in the Moqui and on the banks of the Gila, we are 
tempted to believe (and I venture to repeat it here) that at the 
period of the migrations of the Toltecs, the Acolhues and the 
Aztecs, several tribes separated from the great mass of the people 
to establish themselves in these northern regions. However, the 
language spoken by the Indians of the Moqui, the Yabipais, who 
wear long beards, and those who inhabit the plains in the vicinity 
of the Rio Colorado, is essentially different from the Mexican lan- 
guage* 

There is scarcely a valley in the Rio Grande basin in which the 
stone or adobe foundations of villages are not to be found. East of 

* Humboldt's "New Spain." 



CHAP. XVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



165 



the Rio Grande there are at least three ruined towns deserving of 
special notice. These are the ruins of Pecos, Quarra, Grand Qui- 
vera, and Abo. The early Spaniards tell us that Pecos was a forti- 
fied town of several stories. It was built upon the summit of a 
mesa which jutted out into the valley of the stream of the same 
name, and overlooked the lowlands for many miles in both direc- 
tions. The pueblo was called by the early Spaniards " Tiguex." 
At Grand Quivera there are extensive ruins, undoubtedly of In- 
dian origin, which fully carry out the statement of the historian 
Vonegas, and others, that this ancient pueblo was a large fortress 
consisting of six terraces rising in steps one from the other. The 
remains of large acequias are to be seen in the vicinity both of 
Grand Quivera and Quarra. 

There are several ruined pueblos upon the two most southern 
tributaries of the San Juan river, viz. : the Rio de Chelly and the 
Canon de Chaco. The most remarkable are the Pintado, Una Vida 
Wegigi, Hungo Pavia, and Bonito, all on the latter stream. Be- 
sides these there are five others in a more ruined state. The pueblo 
Pintado has three stories, its whole elevation being about thirty 
feet. The walls are built of small flat slabs of a grey, fine-grained 
sandstone two and a-half inches thick, and are put together with 
much art and ingenuity, by means of a kind of mortar made with- 
out lime. The thickness of the outer wall of the first story is three 
feet at the base, diminishing at each successive story until the top 
wall scarcely exceeds one foot. There are, as usual, no external 
openings on the ground floor. The length of the edifice is three 
hundred and ninety feet. The ground floor contains fifty-three 
rooms, which open into each other by means of very small doors, 
in many instances only thirty-three inches square. The floors are 
made of rough beams, over which transverse cross-beams are laid, 
and above all is a coating of bark and brushwood covered over 
with mortar. The wood appears to have been cut with some blunt 
instrument. 

The ruins of Wegigi are similar to those of Pintado, being six 
hundred and ninety feet in length, having ninety-nine rooms on 
the ground floor. The Pueblo Una Vida is no less than nine hun- 
dred and eighty-four feet long, and the Pueblo Bonito is still more 
extensive. The estufa of the latter is in a very fair state of preser- 
vation, one hundred and eighty feet in circumference, and the walls 
are regularly formed of alternate layers of small and large stones 
held together with mortar. 

Another pueblo, Chelto Kette, measured thirteen hundred feet 
in circumference, and was originally four stories high. It has the 



166 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XVI. 



remains of one hundred and twenty-four rooms on the first story. 
The most perfect of the ten ruined pueblos discovered in the Canon 
de Chaco is that of Hungo Pavie [14]. Its circumference, includ- 
ing the enclosed court, is eight hundred and seventy-two feet. It 
faces, as usual, the cardinal points, and contains one estufa, placed 
in the centre of the northern wing of the building. 

At Zuni the terraces face outwards and rise in steps towards 
the centre, and while the ruins in the Canon de Chaco seem to 
show that there the outermost wall was the highest, many ruins 
elsewhere prove that the opposite was often the case. Thus two 
forms were probably in use ; the one rose from without in steps 
towards the centre of the building, the other faced the court-yard 
and was encircled by its highest walls. 

One or more estufas have been discovered in each pueblo ; some 
are rectangular, others circular. There are similar ruins in the 
Valley of de Chelly. 

The country occupying the fork between the Great Colorado 
and the Colorado Chiquito forms a part of that vast table-land, 
the Colorado Plateau, through which both these streams flow in 
deep canons. The seven Moqui villages crest the edges of some 
of the mesas which form the south-eastern escarpment of the pla- 
teau. Further to the north-west, and nearer the Colorado, there 
is another group of pueblos in ruins, larger than those of the 
Moqui Indians, but situated, like them, on the flat summits of 
mesas, containing estufas, reservoirs, terraces, aqueducts, and walls 
of at least four stories high. No traces have as yet been found of 
their former inhabitants. 

Next we came to the ruins on the Colorado Chiquito and its 
southern tributaries. There are ruins upon El Moro, ruins north 
of Zuni, Old Zuni, and others along the Zuni River ; ruins also on 
the Rio Puercos of the West, and there are most extensive ruins 
in the main valley, both above the falls and between the falls 
and the entrance of the canon of the Chiquito, scattered along a 
fertile basin of at least a hundred miles in length. At Pueblo 
Creek the remains of several fortified pueblos were found, crown- 
ing the heights which command the Aztec Pass ; but west of this 
point (long. 113° west) no other ruins have as yet (1867) been 
found. 

Leaving the basin of the Colorado Chiquito, we pass southward 
to that of the Rio Gila, where the most extensive ruins of all are 
to be found. Some fine streams enter this river on the north. 
The chief of these are the Rios Presto, Bonito, San Carlos, Salinas, 
and Rio Verde, which latter two unite before joining the Gila, 



CHAP. XVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



167 



twelve miles from the Pima villages. The great New Mexican 
guide, Leroux, started northward ..from the Pima villages, in May, 
1854, crossed over to the junction of the Salinas with the Rio 
Verde, ascended the latter stream, and crossing from it to the 35° 
parallel route along the Colorado Chiquito. He represents the 
Rio Verde as a fine, large stream, in some places rapid and deep, 
in others spreading out into wide lagoons. The ascent was by 
gradual steppes, stretching out on either side into plains which 
abound in timber. The river banks were covered with ruins of 
stone houses and regular fortifications, which were evidently the 
work of a very civilized people, but did not appear to have been 
inhabited for centuries. They are built on the most fertile tracts 
of the valley, where were signs of acequias and of cultivation. 
The walls were of solid masonry, of rectangular form, some twenty 
or thirty paces in length, and from ten to fifteen feet in height. 
They were usually of two stories, with small apertures or loop- 
holes, and reminded him strongly of the Moqui pueblos. At one 
place he encountered a well-built fortified town, ten miles distant 
from the nearest water. 

Other travellers and prospectors report many ruined pueblos 
about the Salinas, others on the San Carlos, and several very 
extensive ones in the fertile Tonto basin, which is drained by a 
tributary of the Salinas. A little west of the northern extremity 
of the Burro Mountains the Rio Gila leaves the Santa Rita and 
other ranges, and meanders for a distance of from seventy to one 
hundred miles through an open valley of considerable width. 
This long strip of fertile bottom-land is studded throughout with 
the foundations of pueblos. It is impossible to travel more than 
a mile or two without encountering them, and at least one hun- 
dred thousand people, says one of the guides who knew the ground 
well, must at one time have occupied this valley. The ruins fol- 
low the river quite to the mouth of the first canon by which the 
Gila cuts through the Pina-leno Mountains. 

All along the San Pedro valley, for one hundred and sixty 
miles, ruined pueblos are frequently met with. Between Camp 
Grant and the Pima villages the mesas bordering on the Gila are 
pretty thickly studded with ruins, but further west than the con- 
fluence of the Rio Verde no such traces of pueblos are to be 
found * 

Two good-sized ruins are situated near the Pima villages. One 

* An interesting description of the borders of the Gila will be found in " Notes 
of a Military Reconnoissance " from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego, made in 
1846-1847 by W. H. Emory, then Major and afterwards General U. S. A. 



168 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVI. 



is known as Casa Montezuma, or Casa Blanca ; the other as Casa 
Grande. The former consists of the remains of five large houses, 
one of which is tolerably perfect as a ruin. Around it are piles of 
earth, showing where others had been, and although ten miles dis- 
tant from the river, all the intervening space is intersected by ace- 
quias, and was, no doubt, under cultivation. The chief ruin is 
four stories high and forty by fifty feet wide.* The walls face the 
cardinal points, and there are four estufas four feet by two in 
size. The rafters inside were almost entirely destroyed by fire. 
The walls consisted of brick, mortar and pebbles, smoothed with- 
out and plastered within. 

Casa Grande is situated a little below the junction of the Rio 
Verde and the Salinas. It is a rectangular ruin, two hundred and 
twenty feet by sixty-eight feet, whose sides face the cardinal points. 
The highest walls are, as usual, found in the centre of the pile, 
and they appear to have been three or four stories high. Besides 
abundance of broken pottery are found sea-shells, often pierced, 
and otherwise converted into ornaments, about the ruins which 
skirt the Gila and neighboring streams, showing that these people 
must have had some intercourse with tribes living along the coast. 

One more cluster of ruins, which, although they lie south of the 
boundary, belong to the same class as those which have been 
mentioned, are the Casas Grandes and Casa de Janos, situated on 
the Rio Casas Grandes, which flows northward into the Laguna de 
Guzman in north-western Chihuahua. The former, according to 
Clavigero, is similar in every respect to the ruined fortresses of 
New Mexico, consisting of three floors with a terrace above them, 
and without an entrance to the ground floor. The doors led into 
the buildings on the second floor, so that ladders were necessary. 
The following particulars are from Bartlett's personal narrative : 

" The ruins of Casas Grandes consist of fallen and erect walls, 
the latter varying in height from five to thirty feet, projecting above 
the heaps of ruins which have crumbled to decay. Were the 
height estimated from the foundations it would be much greater, 
particularly of those of the centre part of the building, where the 
fallen walls and rubbish form a mound twenty feet above the 
ground. If, therefore, the highest walls were standing, from their 
foundation on the lowest level, their probable height was from 
forty to fifty feet. I conclude that the outer portions of the 
building were the lowest — about one story high; while the central 

* J. Eoss Brown, in his " Tour Through Sonora and Arizona," gives 40 feet 
by 50 as the dimensions of the Casa Grande. General Emory, U.S.A., describes 
the Casa Grande of the Gila. 



CHAP. XVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



169 



ones, judging from the height of the walls now standing and the 
accumulation of rubbish, were probably from three to six stories. 
Every portion of the building is made of adobe, which differs 
from that now made by the Mexicans in that the blocks are very 
much larger, being fourteen or sixteen inches long, twelve inches 
wide, and three or four thick ; the others are usually twenty -two 
inches in thickness and three feet or more in length.* Gravel was 
mixed with these large adobes, which greatly increases their hard- 
ness, but no straw was used. The building consists of three 
masses, united by walls, of probably but one story, forming, per- 
haps, only court-yards; they are now weather-beaten down to 
long lines of mounds. 

" The centre edifice extends from north to south eight hundred 
feet and from east to west two hundred and fifty feet. The general 
character is very similar to Casas Grandes, near the Pima villages 
and the ruins on the Salinas. Not a fragment of wood remains ; 
many doorways are to be seen, but the long sills have gone, and 
the top has, in most cases, crumbled away and fallen in. 

" Some of the apartments arranged along the main walls are 
twenty feet by ten, and connected by doorways with a small en- 
closure or pen in one corner, between three and four feet high. 
Besides these there are many other exceedingly narrow apart- 
ments, too contracted for dwelling-places or sleeping-rooms, and 
into which the light was admitted by circular apertures in the 
upper part of the wall. There are also large halls, and some en- 
closures within the walls are so extensive that they could never 
have been covered with a roof. The lesser ranges of buildings 
which surround the principal one may have been occupied by the 
people at large, whose property was deposited within the great build- 
ing for safe keeping. Although there appears to be less order in 
the tout ensemble of this great collection of buildings than in those 
farther north, the number of small apartments, the several stages 
or stories, the inner courts, and some of the minor details, resemble 
in many respects the large edifices of the semi-civilized Indians 
of New Mexico. 

" The builders showed much sagacity in their choice of so fine 
a region for agricultural purposes. There is none equal to it from 
the lowlands of Texas, near San Antonio, to the fertile valleys of 
California, near Los Angeles ; and with the exception of the Rio 
Grande, there is not one valley equal in size to that of the Casas 

* It is well to remark that the size and consistency of these blocks of concrete 
were the same as those of the Casa Grande of the Gila, which gives a probability 
that both these buildings were constructed by the same people. 



170 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XVI. 



Grandes, between those of eastern Texas and the Colorado of the 
West. The water of the Rio Casas Grandes, unlike that of the 
Rio Grande, Pecos, and Colorado, is clear, sweet, and sparkling." 

When New Mexico was discovered, all the country extending 
from Culiacan to the desert of Cibola on one side, and to the 
Rio Colorado on the other, was but a succession of towns, villages 
and habitations joined together by cultivated fields, orchards, 
gardens and roads. But those great multitudes of human beings 
have almost disappeared since the conquests ; the silence of the 
wilderness has succeeded the joyful songs of the extinct popu- 
lations, and the aridity of the desert replaces the primitive fertility 
of the soil.* 

On the 10th of November, 1582, Antonio de Espejo left the val- 
ley of San Bartolo (one hundred leagues from the city of Mexico) 
at the head of an expedition, to explore the Rio del Norte, and to 
discover the fate of two friars, Lopez and Ruyz, who were reported 
to have been murdered there. 

Directing his course northward, he met with great numbers of 
Conchos (Papagos), who dwelt in hamlets covered with straw. 
These Indians went nearly naked, cultivated corn, pumpkins, and 
melons, and were armed with bows and arrows. They worshipped 
neither idols nor aught else. The caciques sent information of the 
expedition from one town to another, and the party was well- 
treated. They passed through Passagautes, the Zoboses, and the 
Jumanes, who were called by the Spaniards Patarabueges. Their 
villages are upon the Rio del Norte ; their houses are flat-roofed, 
and built of mortar and stone. These people were well-clothed, 
and seemed to have some knowledge of the Catholic faith. As- 
cending the Rio del Norte, they discovered another province of 
Indians, who showed them many curious things made of feathers 
of divers colors, and many cotton mantles, striped blue and 
white, like those brought from China. These people showed by 
signs that five days' journey westward there were precious metals. 

Journeying thence northward along the Rio del Norte, they 
were well-received amongst a numerous population. Here they 
were told by a Concho Indian who accompanied them, that fifteen 

* " The Great Deserts of North America," by Abbe Domenech, Alvarez Nu- 
nez. Cabefla de Vacca, who accompanied Narvaez on his expedition into Florida, 
in his wanderings from 1527 to 1536, passed through this region, and represents 
it as more civilized and more populous than others. Several places he passed 
through were very populous. He traveled on foot from the Rio Colorado of 
Texas to the Pacific Ocean, and then, apparently, through a desert to Culiacan 
and the City of Mexico. 



CHAP. XVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



171 



days' journey towards the west could be found a broad lake and 
great towns with houses three and four stories high. They noted 
particularly the " specially " excellent temperature of the climate, 
good soil, and abundance of precious metals. 

From this province they travelled fifteen days without meeting 
anyone, passing through woods of pine trees. 

Having thus travelled eighty leagues, they arrived at villages 
where there was much excellent white salt. Ascending the valley 
of the Rio del Norte twelve leagues farther, they arrived at the 
country which they called New Mexico. Here, all along the banks of 
the river, grew mighty woods of poplar, in some places four leagues 
broad, and great store of walnut trees and vines. Having travelled 
two days through these woods, they arrived at ten towns situated 
upon both sides of the river, where were about ten thousand per- 
sons. Here were houses four stories in height, with " stoves for 
the winter season." They had L " plenty of victuals and hem of the 
country."* " Their garments were of cotton and deerskins, and the 
attire of both men and women was after the manner of the Indi- 
ans of Mexico. Both men and women wore boots and shoes with 
good soles of leather — a thing never seen in any other part of the 
Indies. "f 

" There are caciques who govern the people, like the caciques 
of Mexico, with sergeants to execute their orders. In all their 
arable grounds, whereof they have great plenty, they erect on 
one side a little cottage, or shed, standing upon four poles, under 
which the laborers eat and pass away the heat of the day ; for they 
are a people much given to labor. This country is full of moun- 
tains and forests of pine trees. Their weapons are strong bows, 
and arrows pointed with flints. They also use targets or shields 
made of raw hide." 

After remaining four days in this province, not far off they came 
to another, called the province of Tiguas (Tiguex), containing six- 
teen towns, in one of which the two friars, Lopez and Ruyz, had 
been slain. Hence the inhabitants fled. The Spaniards, entering 
the town, found plenty of food, hens, and rich metals. Here they 
heard of many rich towns far towards the east. Two days' journey 
from the province of Tiguex they found another province, contain- 
ing eleven towns and about forty thousand inhabitants. The 
country was fertile and bordered on Civola, where was abundance 

* Might not this mean grouse, prairie hens ? 

f The most civilized Indians that De Soto met with in Florida were those of 
Cofacique, on the Savannah river ; they were well-shod. ''Deer skins " in con- 
nection with dress means " buckskin," dressed like chamois skins. 



172 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XVI. 



of kine.* Here were signs of " very rich mines." Having returned 
to Tiguex, they ascended the Rio del Norte six leagues, to another 
province, called Los Quires. Here they found five towns, and 
fourteen thousand persons who worshipped idols. Among the 
curious things seen at this place, were a pig in a cage and " cano- 
pies like those brought from China " upon which were painted the 
sun, moon, and stars. The height of the polar star led them to 
believe themselves in north latitude 37° 30'. 

Pursuing the same northerly course, fourteen leagues, they found 
another province, inhabited by Cumanes (or Pumanes), with five 
towns, of which Ciazia was the greatest, having twenty thousand 
persons, eight market-places, and houses plastered and painted in 
divers colors. The inhabitants presented them with mantles curi- 
ously wrought, and showed rich metals, and mountains near which 
were the mines. Having travelled six leagues northwest they came 
to Amcres, where were seven great towns and thirty thousand 
souls. One of the towns was said to be very great and fair, but as 
it stood behind a mountain they feared to approach it. Fifteen 
leagues west they found a great town, called Acerna, containing 
about six thousand persons, and situated upon a high rock, which 
was about fifty paces high, having no entrance except by stairs 
hewn into the rock. The water of this town was kept in cisterns. 
Their cornfields, two leagues distant, were watered from a small 
river, upon the banks of which were roses. Many mountains in 
this vicinity showed signs of metals, but they went not to see them. 

Twenty-four leagues westward from Acerna they arrived at 
Zuni, by the Spaniards called Cibola, containing great numbers of 
Indians. Here were three Christian Indians, left by Coronado in 
1540. They informed Espejo that " threescore days' journey from 
this place was a mighty lake, upon the banks whereof stood many 
great and good towns, and that the inhabitants of the same had 
plenty of gold, as shown by their wearing golden bracelets and 
earrings." They said that Coronado intended to have gone there, 
but, having travelled twelve days' journey, he began to want water 
and returned. Espejo, desirous of seeing this rich country, de- 
parted from Cibola, and having travelled twenty- eight leagues west 
found another great provincef of about fifty thousand souls. As 
they approached a town called Zaquato, the multitude with their 
cacique met them with great joy, and poured corn upon the ground 
for their horses to walk upon, and they presented the captain with 
forty thousand mantles of cotton, white and colored, and many 



* Probably buffaloes. 



f "Mohotze (Moqui?)." 



CHAP. XVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



173 



hard towels with tassels at the four corners, and rich metals which 
seemed to contain much silver. Thence travelling forty-five leagues 
due west, they found the mines of which they had been informed, 
and took out with their own hands rich metals containing silver. 
The mines, which were in a broad vein, were in a mountain* 
easily ascended by an open way to the same. In the vicinity of 
the mines there were numerous Indian pueblos. Hereabout they 
found two riversf of a reasonable bigness, upon the banks whereof 
grew many vines bearing excellent grapes, and great groves of wal- 
nut trees, and much flax, like that of Castile. 

Captain Espejo then returned to Zuni. Thence he determined 
to ascend still higher up the Rio del Norte. Having travelled sixty 
leagues toward the province of Quires, twelve leagues farther east 
they found a province of Indians, called Habates, containing 
twenty-five thousand people, well dressed in colored mantles of 
cotton and hides. They had many mountains full of pines and 
cedars, and the houses of these towns were four or five stories high. 
Here they had notice of another province, distant one day's jour- 
ney thence, inhabited by Indians, called Tamos (Toas), and con- 
taining forty thousand souls. But this people having refused 
admittance to their towns the Spaniards returned, and following- 
one hundred and twenty leagues down a river called Rio de las 
Yacas (Rio Pecos), united again with the Rio del Norte, and went 
homeward in July, 1583. 

Espejo describes no less than sixteen provinces or kingdoms, and 
mentions others from hearsay ; and if his estimates of population at 
all approach the truth, there were far more people in that one valley 
in the sixteenth century than there are now in the whole of New 
Mexico and Arizona united, including both Mexicans and Ameri- 
cans.! 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg's Observations on Central America, etc. 

The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in his " History of the Civilized 
Nations of Mexico and Central America," has the following : The 

* " Probably San Francisco Mountain," Rio Verde. 

t " Probably the Colorado Chequito (Rio del Lino) and Rio Verde." 

I " A Journal of Travel and Adventure in the Survey for a Southern Railroad 
to the Pacific Ocean during 1867-8." By William A. Bell, M.A., M.B., etc. 
With contributions by General W. J. Palmer, Major A. R. Calhoun, C. C. Parry, 
M.D., and Captain W. F. Colton. 



174 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVII. 



object which we propose to ourselves is to re-establish the facts 
altered by ignorance or concealed by Spanish jealousy ; to make 
known the nations whom a cold indifference has disdained ; to 
seek their origin, and replace them as near as possible in the rank 
to which they belong, according to the order of the general civili- 
zation of which we write the history. Mexico and Central Ameri- 
ca, from the time of their discovery, have attracted the attention 
of intelligent men. The ruins of ancient American cities discov- 
ered in forests, where they lay unknown for centuries, have in- 
creased in our day the desire to fathom the mysteries which still 
envelope their history. It is to respond to this desire that we 
ourselves have labored so actively for more than twenty years to 
unite in the same picture the scattered documents of which this 
history must be composed. It is to satisfy this penchant that we 
have travelled so long a time in these immense regions, and lived 
among the indigenous populations of Mexico and Central Ameri- 
ca, in the hope of informing ourselves more certainly, by their 
contact, of their traditions, their manners and their languages. 

In the book which we write we do not adopt particularly any 
of the imaginary systems on the subject of their origin or of their 
civilization. We simply combine what we have collected from 
the original documents written by the Indians before and after 
the conquest, and we relate what we have heard from their mouth 
in order to enable the reader to judge personally of the cosmo- 
gonic notions, religious and historic, of American antiquity, and 
to leave to him all his liberty to form comparisons between the 
peoples of the ancient and the new world. 

For half a century the passage of the Asiatics and Esquimaux 
by the Straits of Behring has been raised to the rank of a histori- 
cal certainty by the researches of a great number of savants, but 
they have never maintained that all the Americans have descended 
from the colonies arrived from Asia. Acosta and Clavigero, how- 
ever, in supporting the first of these opinions with their suffrage, 
are of a mixed opinion, which unites equally the claims of the 
European, the Asiatics, the Africans, and even of the peoples of 
the ocean. But they rely, especially in regard to the first, upon 
the physiological character, which in many respects the American 
race resembles that of the Mongolians who peopled the north and 
east of Asia, as also that of the Malays, or the men the least 
tawny, of Polynesia and the other archipelagoes of the ocean. 
This resemblance, which, however, extends only to the color and 
some traits of the countenance, does not embrace the more essential 
parts, such as the skull, the hair, and the facial angle. If in the 



CHAP. XVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



175 



system of the unity of the human race we would consider the 
Americans as a branch of the Mongolian stock, we must suppose 
that during a long succession of ages it has been separated from 
the trunk and been subject to the slow action of a particular cli- 
mate. It is the opinion of Clavigero and of the wise Abbe Hervas, 
who rightly insist upon the high antiquity of the American na- 
tions. 

It is believed also that there are found proofs of Asiatic emigra- 
tion in the languages of the New World. But as the wise and 
modest Gallatin remarks, physiology does not yet enable us to 
draw any positive conclusions on this subject, and it is not proba- 
ble that the isolated comparison of vocabularies can give us much 
light. There are, perhaps, more than two hundred languages in 
America. Notwithstanding the resemblance of their construction 
and grammatical form, they have generally but few of them, in 
their words. We can discover remarkable coincidences between 
these words and those of other languages, but these coincidences 
do not suffice yet to establish between the American idioms and 
those of other countries the proof, or even the indication, of a 
common origin. The knowledge of the languages of the north- 
east of Asia and of the interior of America is yet very limited. 
We must therefore await more complete investigations before we 
can pronounce wisely upon this matter. 

In seeing this multitude and prodigious diversity of American 
languages, would not the first idea be to conclude that the New 
World must have been peopled not by a few distinct nations, but 
by a great number of families absolutely different one from the 
other ? This hypothesis, so improbable in itself, is, besides, in- 
compatible with the physical conformation, and the construction 
of the idioms of the greater part of the indigenous nations and 
tribes, among which they find so great a resemblance in modern 
times. 

If, as is probable, this extraordinary subdivision has operated 
in America, we cannot do otherwise than admit the longest period 
possible, the slow operation of time being necessary to accomplish 
the changes of which the languages, not the writings, are suscep- 
tible to separate the masses into bodies of divers nations, and to 
put at a distance the nomadic population from those who consti- 
tuted themselves into civil communities. We can therefore regard 
as certain that America has received its population at a date suf- 
ficiently remote for the providential laws relative to the multipli- 
cation of the human species and its dispersion over the extent 
of the hemisphere to have their full effect. The variety and pro- 



/ 



176 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVII. 

digious number of American languages are, consequently, proofs, 
not only of the high antiquity of the Indians, but also of the cer- 
tainty that the great mass of indigines actually existing is derived 
from these primitive migrations.* 

After having established the antiquity of the original stock of 
the population of America, we can likewise affirm that the suc- 
cessive migrations which have since been able to establish them- 
selves on the Western Continent have not been sufficiently numer- 
ous to efface or alter its distinctive character.f It is thus, for 
example, that the greater part of the languages spoken in the 
Guatamalian States and in the great State of Chiapas appear to 
have for their base the Maya idiom, still spread throughout 
Yucatan. 

As to the passage of man from one hemisphere to the other, it 
presents much less difficulty than we can imagine. Without 
speaking of the Strait of Behring, we know that there would be 
nothing easier than for the inhabitants of Mantchouri or of Japan 
to transfer themselves, in a few days, to the coasts of America by 
following the almost continuous chain of the Kourilien Islands, 
which extend from Japan to Kamtschatka, and thence along the 
Aleutian to Alaska in the 55° of northern latitude. We know, 
besides, that the first modern discoveries were generally the result 
of coasting trade, undertaken from island to island or along the 
coasts. It was thus that the Malais peopled most of the inter- 
tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean, the peopling of which is, 
however, much less explicable than that of the New World. 
Navigators mention more than one example of a canoe or of a 
boat picked up in the vast ocean whose men wandered from their 
country, nourishing themselves with fish which they caught by 
chance, and drinking of rain-water. It has been scarcely eight 

* Gallatin, "Notes on the Semi-civilized Nations of Mexico," etc. 

f The population of the United States shows the small effect that immigration 
produces on the original stock, which was from Great Britain and Ireland. 
The original States being British colonies, the Hollanders, the French, the 
Swedes, and the Palatines, produced little or. no effect on the nucleus of the 
nation ; and so with subsequent immigrations, they have all been, or will be, 
absorbed in the original, all will be and continue an English-speaking nation. 
It has been more difficult to amalgamate the later immigrants ; for they came 
in larger numbers, and some colonized themselves, stuck to their foreign habits, 
customs, and language, and did not enter into the spirit of the American peo- 
ple with the same quickness as the smaller bodies of earlier immigrants. They 
came as Italians, Germans, Swedes, Polanders, French, Spaniards, etc. , but they 
do not remain such ; and so it was probable with the immigration to America 
in remote antiquity. 



CHAP. XVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



177 



years ago that a Japanese junk lost on its route was met by a ship 
of the United States at about a hundred miles from San Fran- 
cisco, and conducted, with its crew, to that port. How many 
examples of a similar kind could not history reveal to us of men 
driven by accidents of the sea on the coasts of America, and who 
afterwards mingled their blood with that of the primitive races? 

The same causes could have led to the same results in the east 
as in the west ; and the evidence of antiquity fails not to explain 
the voyages of long course undertaken to unknown regions of the 
west by the people of the Mediterranean coast. The cod-fishery 
upon the coast of Newfoundland is more ancient than the epoch 
of Columbus, and we believe it would be rashness to assign that 
when it began. The numerous hordes that by turns inundated 
Europe and Asia, which peopled the lakes and islands of Scandi- 
navia, whence afterwards issued the famous pirates who changed 
the destiny of France, have they not been able, in their adven- 
turous excursions in the midst of the ice which environed Iceland, 
to arrive even at the new continent? The American traditions 
make allusions more than once, in a manner very plain, to the 
voyages of the Quichee tribes coming from the east, from a region 
cold and icy, through a hazy sea, to regions not less gloomy and 
cold, whence afterwards they directed their course to the south. 
These traditions certainly deserve great attention. The progress 
of these tribes was slow and painful, and the details are not want- 
ing on this subject ; they had to struggle more than once with the 
elements, with the rigors of a boreal climate and the troubles of 
snow, which often extinguished the fires near which they warmed 
themselves ; they had to contend with the populations among 
whom they passed, in the midst of which they left more than one 
colony, before they arrived at the temperate regions, where their 
descendants are now found. 

It is certain that most of the traditions which we have found in 
the Indian monuments, among the indigenes, announce a distant 
point of departure, and cause a supposition of a common origin 
with the race of men. What is not less remarkable is, that there 
are very few of these traditions which do not assign the east as 
the cradle of the human race. Doubtless there were tribes that 
came from the north-west, and there were some that came from 
the south, but if you interrogate their history, if you ask them 
how their first ancestors arrived in the north-west, they answer 
that they first departed from the place where the sun rises.* We 

* The Peruvians and the Natchez Indian chiefs, at almost the opposite ex- 
tremities of America, claimed the sun as their origin, and called themselves 

12 



178 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVII. 



do not, however, claim that some have not come from elsewhere ; 
we simply establish the fact in support of which the greater part 
of the American natives who have preserved any memorial of 
their origin range themselves. 

In the vast territories comprised within the basin of the Missis- 
sippi and its affluents there are seen in many places rude monu- 
ments, but imposing in their grandeur and extent, whose origin is 
lost in the night of ages. There are tumuli or tombs of a conical 
form, pyramids of cyclopean proportions, immense enclosures 
constructed of earth mingled with stone. If, after this, we think 
of the monuments which an unknown people have left in southern 
Siberia, compare the epochs of the primitive emigrations of the 
civilized populations of the Aztec plateau and that of the great 
revolutions of Asia at the time of the first movements of the Huns, 
we are tempted to believe that we see in the ancestors of the Mexi- 
cans the remains of a civilized nation which had fled from the 
borders of the Irtich or of the lake Baikal to escape from the }^oke 
of the barbarous hordes of the great Asiatic plateau. 

The great emigration of the American tribes of the north is equally 
established by divers traditions. All the nations of the south of 
the United States claim to have arrived from the west in crossing 
the Mississippi. According to the Muscogulges, the great people 
from whence they sprung still dwell in the west; their arrival does 
not appear to date but from the sixteenth century. The Chippe- 
was are the only ones whose traditions indicate to a certain point 
their departure from Asia. They say they inhabited a country 
very remote to the west, from whence a wicked nation had driven 
them. They traversed a long lake filled with islands and heaps 
of ice ; winter reigned everywhere on their passage. They landed 
near the Copper river. These circumstances cannot apply but to a 
people of Siberia, who would have passed the strait of Behring, 
or sailed along the Aleutian Islands. Nevertheless, the Chippewa 
language does not present a character more ancient than that of 
the other American idioms. 

The traditions, the monuments, the usages, the astronomical 
and religious systems, as the comparison of many idioms, render 
more than probable the invasion of the Asiatic nations into the 
new continent. But all the circumstances concur in putting back 

Suns. They looked to the east to hail the rising or coming of the sun. The 
sun was the source of everything, — their supreme god ; and hence, probably, 
as the sun came from the east, as they imagined, they looked to the east as the 
source of their origin. 



CHAP. XVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



179 



the epoch of the most of these emigrations in the darkness of ages 
anterior to history.* 

After all that we have just expressed, we believe that it would 
be superfluous to analyze further the numerous opinions that have 
been hazarded upon the migrations of antiquity to the American 
continent. The common resource of the passage of the ten tribes 
of Israel led captive by Salmanazar has been employed by a great 
number of writers. The magnificent compilation of Lord Kings- 
borough will be, without doubt, the best and most durable of the 
monuments raised to this system. We would not, on that account, 
positively deny that there had been Israelites in America before 
the fifteenth century ; we are clearly persuaded of the contrary. 
Only, we reject every system which has for its object to make of 
ancient American civilization the special appurtenance of any one 
nation whatever, African, European, or Asiatic. We have had too 
often, elsewhere, the opportunity to admire, among the Indian 
populations of Mexico, or of Central America, Jewish or Egyptian 
types ; more than once, likewise, we have observed, in these coun- 
tries profiles like to those of the King of Judea sculptured among 
the ruins of Karnac, and seen Indians in their haughty nudity re- 
sembling the beautiful Egyptian statues in the museum of the 
Louvre or of Turin. A crowd of foreigners, French, Belgian, Ger- 
man and English, have remarked with as much surprise as we, in 
certain Guatemalian villages, the Arab costume of the men, and 
the Jewish costume of the woman of Palin, and of the borders of 
the lake, Amatitlan, as perfect, and as beautiful, as in the pictures 
of Horace Vernet.f 

* But little faith is to be placed in most Indian dates and traditions. A very 
old Creek chief told Bartram that his nation came to where they were settled 
(Georgia) when Charleston, South Carolina was settled. But the names of their 
towns proved that they were there in 1540. 

f In a book entitled "Six Months in Mexico," I find the following : " Down 
by Cordoba I found a tribe of Indians who are not known to many Mexicans 
excepting those in their vicinity ; they are called Amatecos, and their village, 
which lies three miles from Cordoba, is called Amatlan ; their houses, although 
small, are finer and handsomer than any in the republic. Flowers, fruit and 
vegetables are cultivated by them, and all the pineapples, for which Cordoba is 
famous, come from their plantations. They weave their own clothing, and 
have their own priest, church, and school. Everything is a model of cleanli- 
ness, and throughout the entire village not one thing can be found out of place. 
The women are about the medium height, with slim but shapely bodies ; their 
hands and feet are very small, and their faces of a beautiful Grecian shape ; their 
eyes are magnificent, and their hair long and silky." 

The men are large and strongly built, not bad-featured. They wear many 
chains, ornaments, bracelets and earrings. They are always spotlessly clean. 



180 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVII. 



We will not enter any further into the system of Ordonez* and 
of Juarrosf who give alike the Egyptians and the Phcenicans for 
the ancestors of the Toltecas and the Mexicans, as also for the 
founders of Palenque. These systems anciently adopted by 
Siguenza, whose manuscripts we have seen at Mexico, and by 
other writers, do not rest upon very positive historical data. The 
passages of Diodorus Siculus and of Aristotle, which everybody 
knows, on the subject of the expeditions of the Carthaginians, 
although very curious, and giving an appearance of foundation to 
these systems, are not conclusive. We shall not then here reject 
the possibility of the voyages of the ancients to America. Hum- 
boldt reports on this subject an extremely curious passage of Plu- 
tarch ; it is a query, in terms perfectly clear and precise, of a great 
transatlantic continent, and of a mysterious stranger, arrived from 
this distant country, at Carthage, where he remained several years, 
about two or three years before the vulgar era.J 

If we study the condition of the aborigines of the New World 
at the end of the fifteenth century we recognize that all this vast 
extent from the extremity of one pole to the other was irregularly 
divided between two families entirely different ; one composed of 
a multitude of wandering tribes, living, in a savage state, on the 
spontaneous productions of the earth ; the other organized into 
natural communities, given to agriculture, having regular forms 
of government and religious systems based upon a powerful hie- 
rarchy — finally comparable by their civilization to the ancient em- 
pires of Asia. The civilized races of America could not have 
known but very imperfectly their mutual existence, and doubtless 
had but very indirect relations with the savage tribes that sur- 
rounded them. But all had among them particular traits of re- 
semblance which perfectly distinguished them from the people of 
the Old World. It was a temperament and physical constitution 
common ; usages and institutions analogous ; constructions in 
their language and grammatical forms very nearly identical — very 
different from those of our continent. 

They are industrious and rich. They never leave their homes but once a 
week, when they bring their marketing and sell it to the Indians of Cordoba. 
Their language is different from all the others, but they also speak the Spanish. 
The women are sweet and innocent, and undoubtedly the handsomest and cleanest 
people in the republic. 

* " Ordonez and Aquiar. History of Heaven and Earth," etc. MS. of the 
Museum of Mexico. 

f "Compendium of the History of Guatemala," etc., 1810, Guatemala. 

X " Humboldt, Examen critique de la geographie du noveau continent, torn 1, 
p. 191, Paris." 



CHAP. XVII.] OF AMERICA. 181 

At the time of the discovery, the aborigines of America could 
have been divided into three classes : the agricultural natives, prop- 
erly so-called ; the savages, living only on the products of their 
hunting or their fishing; and finally the tribes which had some 
partial notions of agriculture. 

All the nutritive plants cultivated in our hemisphere and des- 
ignated under the common appellation of cereals, the millet, the 
rice, wheat, rye, barley, and oats, were absolutely unknown to the 
western continent before the arrival of the Europeans. Mais 
(corn) which was the principal and almost the only foundation of 
American agriculture, is absolutely of American origin.* 

If we judge of it (agriculture) from the historical traditions of 
the Guatemalan population, the data which we possess relative to 
the Indians of the United States, from the known habitudes of 
some tribes of the northeast of Asia, and from the annals even of 
the people of the old continent, where we find slavery over the 
social bod} 7 , we will be inclined to believe that violence alone has 
been capable of working such a change in the manners of the In- 
dian hunter. Slavery, which, according to all probability, is the 
result of conquest, must have been of great efficacy in the trans- 
mutation of savages into agricultural nations. Inequality of con- 
dition was the necessary consequence of it. To this first element 
another was gradually united, which appears to have been the dis- 
tinctive sign of the social state. The religious sentiment, the 
natural consequence of the belief in a Supreme Being, is a senti- 
ment everywhere deeply graven in the human heart. Diviners 
are found among savages, as among civilized peoples, and conse- 
quently ambitious men who know how to make use of superstition to 
govern the multitude. It is estimated that at the time of the dis- 
covery of America the nations of Mexico and Peru were under the 
yoke of a military and religious despotism, perfectly regulated. 

* The divers species of kidney beans, called by the Spaniards frijoles, and 
which are now one of the bases of the nourishment of the Indians of Mexico, of 
Central America, and of Peru, are indigenous to America, as well as a certain 
class of pumpkins (courges). The potato, called papa, and many other analogous 
species of roots, such as the camote and the yucca, all unknown to Europe except- 
ing the first, belong exclusively to the new continent. I shall not speak of a 
great variety of other roots or indigenous vegetables, of which I have often had 
made excellent juliennes in my solitude at Vera Cruz, but I shall remark that Dr. 
Hernandez, in his Natural History of Mexico," describes a species of wheat, 
which is found in Michoacan, of a prodigious fecundity. They give to it the 
name of huauhtli, which the Spaniards of the continent translated by "bledos." 
This wheat was not to the taste of the Mexicans, who preferred to it mais, as 
they still prefer it to the wheat of Europe. 



182 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVII. 

f 

The transformation of a savage tribe into an agricultural people at 
once operated the transmutation of absolute individual indepen- 
dence into a despotism of that kind which cannot be of long du- 
ration ;* but the progress in the arts and in the acquisition of 
divers sciences being often arrested in their progress by the civil 
and religious institutions adopted anteriorly, could not, on the 
contrary, but be slow and gradual. 

In recognizing the necessity of violence and conquest in order 
to make a horde of savages a civilized nation, we cannot conclude 
that such a change could be the work of a few isolated emigrants. 
We know T , however, that the foreign emigrations to America were 
rarely composed of a great number of men. We must therefore 
admit, and it is the only hypothesis which agrees with the ensemble 
of American traditions, that this social revolution was in great part 
the effect of persuasion ; that the barbarians of the New World 
were indebted for it to a few extraordinary personages, priests or 
legislators arrived from distant countries to spread among them 
their dogmas and their laws. 

The origin of the civilized nations of America, as that of the 
peoples of the ancient continent, is essentially united to the mytho- 
logical traditions that envelop their infancy, but under these po- 
etical veils are concealed the religious principles of the first ages, 
and the chaos of an existence anterior to historic times and the 
formation of societies. Notwithstanding the relative resemblance 
which exists between so many different traditions, each one never- 
theless has its own character according to the diversity of the cli- 
mates where it took its birth, or the genius of the men to whom it 
owed its existence. 

The primitive civilization of North America appears to have ex- 
tended its benefits, in the first times of its existence, to divers 
countries now known under the names of the States of Tabasco, 
Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Yucatan, as well as to the actual republics 
of Gautemala, San Salvador, and Honduras. The multitude and 
variety of the ruins which are met with in these diverse countries, 
joined to the study of the traditions which are attached to their 
past, have inspired the thought of seeking the first traces of these 
ancient nations, which rivalled, by their culture and their polite- 
ness, the kingdoms of ancient Asia. 

According to the account of the ancient Tzendales traditions, 
the borders of the Tabasco and the Uzumacinta must have been 

* " Which cannot be of long duration." All history refutes this. The Abbe ap- 
pears to have felt more than he dared to express, and even to have been cautious 
of what he did express. 



CHAP. XVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



188 



witnesses, many centuries before the Christian era, of the marvels 
worked by Votan, the most ancient of American legislators. 
The Uzumacinta, as well as the Tabasco, is rapid until the mo- 
ment of arriving in the plain ; it rolls its waves sometimes be- 
tween two walls of volcanic rocks like to gigantic natural fortifica- 
tions : sometimes in a narrow profound valley shaded by vener- 
able forests, beneath which are concealed the debris of cities built 
by populations, now lost, of the western continent. Magnificent 
forests of a wonderful variety of trees, and foliage as vigorous as 
the day which saw the primitive civilizers land, have resumed the 
place which the latter had taken from them, and for ages bathed 
again their shadows in its rapid waves. A short distance behind 
these forests luxuriant savannas, displaying all the beauties of the 
tropical flora, lose themselves on one side in the State of Yucatan, 
and on the other in that of Chiapas. 

The town of Chiapas, the first which it is said that has been . 
built upon North American soil, rises upon the slope of a hill at 
the entrance to the steep mountains of Tumbala, which in grave 
and unforeseen circumstances could afford the safest retreat. 

According to the traditions collected among the Tzendales, it is 
in these places that Votan will appear, accompanied by those whom 
Providence destined to be, under his lead, the founders of Ameri- 
can civilization. Votan, it is said, was the first man that God sent 
to divide and share the lands of America. This sharing indicates 
either a conquest or a colonization ; but it is probable that under 
these two points of view it must be considered, the division of the 
soil being one of the first conditions of ownership, and, conse- 
quently, of civilization. Votan, therefore, did not come to people the 
American continent. We cannot say to what degree of barbarism 
this population had descended before the arrival of Votan. What 
appears certain is, that, in a considerable portion of the countries 
which extend between the Isthmus of Panama and the territories 
of California, men lived in a condition analogous to that of the 
savage tribes of the north. 

It is doubtful, however, that all the American tribes had fallen 
into this state of degradation. Ruins of colossal proportions, 
analogous to the cyclopean edifices which are found in many 
parts of the Old World, are met with here and there in the West- 
ern Continent. They are masses of rough stones, of a prodigious 
size, irregularly placed, without cement, one upon the other, but 
joined in a manner to form together gigantic walls. No souvenir, 
no tradition, recalls now to what peoples these monuments owe 
their existence. We can but attribute them to some warlike race, 



184 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVIII. 



superior to the savage populations which they say had been at- 
tracted to civilization by Votan. Perhaps that race was cotempo- 
raneous with this legislator by whom it had been conquered or 
driven back into the interior of the mountains, where we have 
contemplated these imposing remains of their power.* 

The difficulties which envelop the history of Votan prevents 
making known in a satisfactory manner this mysterious personage. 
We cannot, however, refuse to admit the reality of his existence, 
but the double aspect under which tradition presents him causes 
a doubt sometimes if there were not several Votans, or if this cele- 
brated name has not been attributed as a title of glory to other 
men arrived after him, and equally worthy of public gratitude. 
The analogy which is found in the Tzendales traditions, Quiches 
and Mexicans, between the personages under the divers names of 
Votan, Gucumatz, Cukulcan, and Quetzalcohuatlf causes us to 
believe that at the origin of history a single individual must have 
united this diversity of appellations. The comparison of all the 
traditions decides us, however, to admit two of them, Votan and 
Quetzalcohuatl, the names of Gucumatz Cukulcan being identi- 
cally the same signification as the latter. However it may be, 
it is certain that it was from them, heroes, priests, legisla- 
tors, or warriors, that Central America received the elements of 
that civilization which their successors carried afterwards to so 
high a degree. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The North American Indian, by Ulloa, Croghan, Carver — The Opinions of 
Father Gregorio Garcia — Father Joseph de Acosta — John de Laet — Eman- 
uel de Moraez — George de Huron and Pierre de Charlevoix — Method to 
Discover the Earliest and the Latest Emigrants. 

A natural curiosity leads us to know, above all things, the 
inhabitants of the different countries of the earth, their customs, 

* " The cyclopean ruins which we have seen are about eight leagues to the 
north of Guatemala, upon the high mountains which command the approaches 
from Montagua, on the lands of the hacienda of Carrijal. These ruins occupy 
a considerable extent." 

f Guc or cue, in the Quechee language, is the same bird that the Mexicans call 
Quetzal. Cumalz signifies serpent, as does the Mexican word cohuatl. In the 
Maya language of Yucatan there is likewise discovered the same sense in the 
word cukulcan ; all three signify a feathered serpent, or covered with feathers, 
or rather a serpent adorned with the feathers of guetzal. It is very remarkable 
how the serpent, the most loathed and dreaded of all reptiles, enters into al- 
most all religions — even the Christian. 



CHAP. XVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



185 



usages and inclinations. This desire doubtless comes from all 
men having the same origin. It appears to them very extraordi- 
nary that there is so great a difference of living, of thinking, of all 
these nations. In fact, we can hardly convince ourselves at first 
sight that they all have the same origin. When we reflect upon 
this difference, it is even so great in many nations that it seems to 
make of them a species of men that have never had anything in 
common origin. The complexion, the features of the countenance, 
the form of the body, and, above all, their manners, their kind of 
life, their habits, have shown everywhere astonishing varieties. 
We can, however, reduce these varieties to three principal ones in 
regard to complexion. There are white men, black men, and red- 
dish men. But these colors are each subdivided into almost as 
many different shades as there are regions, states, and provinces 
on the globe. There is remarked between the white and black 
all the opposite shades which can be imagined from one extreme 
to the other, so that in taking these two extremes it might be said 
that the difference is as day to night. The red tint in the middle 
between these two colors differs as much from the one as from the 
other; it is the color of the Indians. Although these men attach 
not any advantage to it, they call themselves, towards the north, 
red-men, to distinguish themselves from the other two species. 
They have sought the cause of these colors, and have claimed to 
have ascertained it. But very far from having found it, they have 
produced nothing but what was illusory in this respect. The same 
arguments that are advanced to prove it refute themselves; but 
besides that, the cold and heat of climates are not sufficient rea- 
sons for it. They do not any more explain in a satisfactory man- 
ner the diversity of the construction and of the features, for there 
is noticed in this respect as many varieties as in the colors of the 
skin. 

The Indians have naturally a color inclined to red, but being- 
very often exposed to the sun and to the wind, this color becomes 
dark. Now, it is settled that neither cold nor heat produces, in 
this respect, any sensible variation ; it is wherefore the Indians of 
the high parts of Peru are confounded with those of the lower 
parts. They are also mistaken in regard to the color of those who 
inhabit the countries called the Vallies, in confounding them with 
those of other countries warmer. And it is the same with regard 
to those who inhabit the southern part, from the fortieth degree, 
towards the south, and of those of the northern part from the 
fiftieth degree and beyond, towards the north ; for they cannot, 
by the color, distinguish the latter from those Indians who are 



186 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVIII. 



towards the Equator. In general it is very difficult to decide 
from what part are any of these Indians when they are found 
together. Their natural color receives from the rays of the sun, 
from the cold, and the air, a tint which renders it of a dim red. 

There are less differences observed among the Indian races than 
among the others ; as, for example, among the Negroes some have 
the nose flat, the tunicle of the eye thick, the lips prominent and 
large, and wool for hair. There are others of them, also black, 
but their face is modelled as that of the whites, especially in regard 
to the mouth, the nose, the eyes ; they have straight hair, although 
very thick. There are also some of them of a reddish, and of an- 
other red shade much brighter, inclined to the color of the Mulattoes. 

As to the Indians, their color scarcely varies at all, notwith- 
standing the difference observed in the form and the features of 
their faces ; a difference very perceptible, and which seems to dis- 
tinguish their race, is a very small forehead, small eyes, nose 
pointed, thin, curved over to the upper lip, the face broad, the 
ears large, the hair black, straight, thick;* very muscular and 
robust; the face without beard, unless they are old, then they 
have a little of it, but never on the cheeks. Although this gen- 
eral form varies, the individuals preserve, however, a bearing of 
the race, which hinders confounding them with Mulattoes, who 
are like them to a certain degree by their color. 

When one has seen an Indian, of Whatever country he may be, he can say 
that he has seen them all, as to color and external structure. But it is not 
the same as regards stature ; they vary according to the countries. 
Those of the high countries of Peru are of medium height ; they 
are found a little larger in the low country, although but a trifle. 
But those who inhabit the southern parts, from the thirty-sixth 
degree to the south, the Keys of Florida, the northern part, from 
the thirtieth degree to the north ; finally, those that are known 
along the Mississippi, in Canada, and towards the part of New 
Spain, are tall and well formed. Now we can attribute this dif- 
ference neither to the cold nor to the heat, since they experience 
in Peru the two extremes of these temperatures in the same degree 
as in climates farthest from or nearest to the Equator. 

The resemblances are still more perceptible as to usages, cus- 
toms, character, genius, dispositions, and other peculiarities ; for 
there is noticed in all as great a resemblance as if the countries 
the most distant formed but one.f 

* This word thick should probably be coarse. 

f "Memoires Philosophiques," etc. Par Don Ulloa, de la Sociele" Eoyale 
de Londres, etc., etc. 



CHAP. XVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



187 



Humboldt, from his extensive travels in America, his inter- 
course with the natives, was well qualified to form a correct 
opinion of the Indian race. He says : " Notwithstanding the close 
ties which seem to unite all the people of America as belonging 
to one and the same race, many tribes among them differ not less 
in the height of their stature, by their tint — more or less tawny — 
by a look which expresses among some peace and gentleness, 
among others a sinister mixture of sadness and ferocity." 

Colonel Croghan was for a long time employed by the English 
Government in what was then called the Indian Department. Few 
men have better known the native nations, and have been better 
loved and esteemed by them ; few persons have made more efforts 
to engage them to cultivate the earth, and to show them the dan- 
gers of drunkenness. 

" What a vast field does not the old and new inhabitants of 
America present for meditation !" remarks Colonel Croghan. " Very 
different from European nations, where complexion, and often 
even features, change with the latitude. We observe an invariable 
uniformity among those whom we meet from the burning shores 
of the Mississippi, under the 30th degree of latitude, to the foggy 
regions of the Saguenay,* under the 50th degree ; the Mastassing 
and the Missisage of the north resemble the Muscogulge (Creeks), 
the Choctaw of Florida, and the Arkansa of the south : all have 
black, coarse hair, all the same mould of physiognomy, the skin 
copper colored, and the white of the eyes mingled with yellow. 
Does not this analogy appear to indicate that these nations de- 
scended from the same stock and are not of a high antiquity, since 
the difference of climate has not produced any in the shades of 
their complexion ? On the other hand, that which we remark 
between the languages which the nations of the south, of the west, 
and of the north, is so great that such an opinion seems inadmis- 
sible.f 

Several confederations existed when the continent was discov- 

* Saguenay : a considerable river of Lower Canada, whose confluence with the 
St. Lawrence, at 150 miles below Quebec, is known under the name of Tadoussac. 
This river issues from the little lake Mastassing. 

f There are four rivers named Miami, viz.: the Miami of the Lakes (the 
Maume), the Big and Little Miami of Ohio, and the Miami of Florida, which 
discharges itself at the southern extremity of the Peninsula. The Tuscarawas, 
of North Carolina, appear to have been related to the Senecas, of New York. 
When the former were defeated by the whites they would not live in subjection 
to them, and removed to the 11 Five Nations," where the Senecas assigned them 
lands, and they became the "Sixth Nation." — See Williams's History of North 
Carolina. 



188 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVIII. 



ered ; the best known were those of the Creeks (Muscogulges) in 
the two Floridas and Georgia; of the Powhatans in Virginia; of 
the Whelenys or Illinois in upper Louisiana ; of the Lenapys in 
lower Pennsylvania and Jersey ; of the Mohawks in the State of 
New York. The first is the only one which has maintained itself; 
of the Illinois, there remain but a few families, which dwell on 
the borders of the river of that name; there is not found a single 
Powhatan in all Virginia, nor a single Lenapy in the country 
which this tribe inhabited. Of the last, there exist only the 
Oneida nations and some remains of the Cayugas, Senecas, and 
Tuscarawas, the Mohawks having been obliged to move into Can- 
ada, where their numbers have been considerably diminished 
within a few years. 

The nations of the Great Lakes and of the Ohio, although a 
little more cultivated, and inhabiting one of the most fertile re- 
gions of this continent, become our tributaries by the need which 
they have of European merchandise ; exposed as the others to the 
ravages of the small-pox, and the abuse of spirituous liquors, 
march also with astonishing rapidity to annihilation ; it seems 
they are destined to disappear before the ascendancy of the 
whites. Yet a few lustres, and there will not remain any trace 
of their passage over the earth but the names formerly given by 
their ancestors to rivers, mountains and lakes of their country." 

In this connection it may be proper to remark that these great 
confederacies do not appear to have existed in 1540, though at that 
time there existed the Alabamas, the Chickasaws, the Chocchu- 
mas, and several other nations mentioned by the historians of De 
Soto's expeditions into Florida. But the Natches claim that their 
kingdom at one time extended from the Bayou Manchac to the 
Ohio, and it is stated in some of the accounts of this nation that 
mounds of earth were raised over its princes the sizes of which 
were in proportion to the importance of the person over whose 
remains they were raised. 

" Since the one hundred and sixty-six years that we have known 
them," continued Croghan, " have we ever seen among them a 
single individual who has shown any spark of the celestial fire 
whence spring useful ideas and grand conceptions ? No ; their 
commerce with us, in causing to cease their wars, their vengeance 
and their cannibalism, has not communicated to them new tastes; 
they feel not even now the necessity and the advantages which 
result from the exclusive possession and the cultivation of a field; 
they know not, as we, the pleasure of planting a tree, and that 
still more agreeable of seeing it loaded with fruits and flowers ; 



CHAP. XVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



189 



nor, finally, that attachment, instinctive among all men, for the 
place of their birth ; like to wild beasts, they quit it without re- 
gret to go elsewhere and erect their wigwams. 

On the other hand, how can we call them barbarians, after 
having observed the invariable kindness of their domestic man- 
ners ; that tranquility of mind ; that disinterestedness ; that 
constant disposition to assist one another in their needs and in 
their distress (for among themselves they are really brothers) ; 
the tenderness with which they raise their children ; the regrets 
and the tears which they shed when they lose them ; their respect 
for old age as well as for the memory and ashes of their ancestors; 
their attachment to their tribe and their nation ; the heroic cour- 
age with which they endure hunger, sickness, sufferance and 
death ? I know not a surer and more faithful friend. If some- 
times we observe among them traits of bad faith, it is from us 
that they have learned lying and duplicity. Viewed in this re- 
spect, who does not regret to see their numbers daily diminish ? 

But then how reconcile the ideas which spring from the con- 
sideration of manners so gentle, with those which produce their 
ferocity in war and towards their prisoners ? This astonishing 
contradiction is equally striking among all the nations that I know 
from the Mississippi to the north of Lake Ontario ; all have the 
same physiognomy, the same opinions, the same usages. There 
is also seen among these nations the same degree of indolence 
which prevents them from working, and inspires them with the 
most profound contempt for husbandry. The same impatience 
which causes them to disdain the repose of a sedentary and quiet 
life draws them to chases the most distant and fatiguing, as well 
as to war. All bear on their physiognomy the imprint of a mind 
void, or inclined to sadness, and yet they know not melancholy ; 
all have the same indifference and improvidence for the future, 
and in spite of the experience of annual indigence, to which their 
unlucky disposition exposes them, they become neither wiser nor 
more provident from it. 

Their women, less robust and less cruel than the men, are all 
subject to a hard and often painful life. They plant the corn, the 
potatoes, the tobacco, smoke the meat, carry the burdens, and 
often accompany their husbands to the great winter hunts, as well 
as to war. They nevertheless have a great influence in nearly all 
the national deliberations (although they are not allowed to speak 
in them), and also in the adoption of prisoners. 

The bodies of the Indians, almost continually exposed to the in- 
clemency of the weather, are much less susceptible to the effects 



190 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVIII. 



of the variation of the atmosphere and the change of seasons than 
ours. One day, when it froze very hard, I said to a Pottawattamy , 
almost naked, * Art thou not cold ?' ' Is thy face cold ?' he 
proudly replied to me. I said to him, ' No ; my face is accus- 
tomed to the wind and the cold.' ' Ah, well,' he replied, ' my 
hody is all face!' Healthy and vigorous, though less capable of 
supporting labors of cultivation than we, those who escape the 
dangers of the small-pox and the abuse of spirituous liquors ar- 
rive at an advanced age almost without any infirmities." 

Flint, in his "Recollections," bears testimony to "the regrets 
and tears which they shed when they lose their children, and to 
their respect for the memory and ashes of their ancestors." He 
says : " I once witnessed a spectacle which I am told the Indians 
are rather shy of exhibiting to strangers, not only among the 
whites, but even of their own race. This was a set mourning for 
a deceased relative. It took place in a Choctaw family, on the 
north side of Lake Pontchartrain. About two months before, they 
had appointed this day for doing up the mourning at once. The 
whole group consisted of nine persons, male and female. Only 
four men enacted the mourning. I was walking near the place 
with my family. Our attention was arrested by the peculiar posi- 
tion of the mourners, and by a monotonous and most melancholy 
lament, in a kind of tone not unlike the howling of a dog. We 
walked up to the mourning, but it went on as if the parties were 
unobservant of our presence. Four large men sat opposite, and 
their heads so inclined to each other as almost to touch. A 
blanket was thrown over their heads ; each had a corner of it in 
his hand. In this position one, who appeared to lead in the busi- 
ness, would begin the dolorous note, which the rest immediately 
followed in a prolonged and dismal strain for more than half a 
minute. It then sank away. It was followed by a few convul- 
sive sobs or snuffles, only giving way to the same dismal howls 
again. This was said to be a common ceremony in like cases, and 
this was a preconcerted duty which they had met at this time and 
place to discharge. The mourning lasted something more than 
an hour. The squaw and sisters of the deceased were walking 
about with unconcern, and as though nothing more than ordinary 
was transacting. To be able to judge of the sincerity with which 
these mourners enacted their business, and to satisfy myself 
whether they were in earnest or in jest, I sat down close by them, 
so that I could look under their blankets, and I saw the tears 
actually streaming down their cheeks in good earnest. When the 
mourning was over they arose, assumed their usual countenance, 
and went about their ordinary business." 



CHAP. XVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



191 



Such were, in general, the inhabitants of this hemisphere when 
first discovered by Europeans, but the Peruvians and the Mexi- 
cans were in the infancy of civilization, just emerging from the 
gross barbarism that characterized the others. 

This ceremony of mourning was one of the religious rites of the 
Peruvians. At a certain festival of the year they visited the 
tombs of the dead to mourn over them. 

Most of the historians or travellers that have treated on the 
American Aborigines disagree in their sentiments in regard to 
them. 

Two Spaniards, the one Father Gregorio Garcia, the other Father 
Joseph de Acosta, have written on the origin of the American 
Indians. The former, who had been employed in the missions of 
Mexico and Peru, endeavored to prove from the traditions of the 
Mexicans, Peruvians and others, which he received on the spot, and 
from the variety of customs, languages, and religions observable 
in the different countries of the New World, that different nations 
had- contributed to the peopling of it. The latter, Father De Acosta, 
in his examination of the means by which the first Indians of 
America might have found a passage to that continent, discredits 
the conclusions of those who believed it to be by sea, because no 
ancient author has made mention of the compass ; and concludes 
that it must be either by the north of Asia and Europe, which ad- 
join to each other, or by those regions which lie to the southward 
of the Straits of Magellan. He also rejects the assertions of such 
as have advanced that it was peopled by the Hebrews. 

John de Laet, a Flemish writer, has controverted the opinion of 
these Spanish fathers, and of many others who have written on 
the same subject. The hypothesis he endeavors to establish is, 
that America was certainly peopled by the Scythians or Tartars ; 
and that the transmigration of these people happened soon after 
the dispersion of Noah's grandsons. He undertakes to show that 
the most northern Americans have a greater resemblance, not only 
in the features of their countenance, but also in their complexion 
and manner of living, to the Scythians, Tartars and Samoides, 
than any other nations. 

In answer to Grotius, who had asserted that some of the Nor- 
wegians passed into America by the way of Greenland, and over a 
vast continent, he says that it is well known that Greenland was 
not discovered till the year 964, and both Gomera and Herrera in- 
form us that the Chichimeques were settled on the Lake of Mexico 
in 721. He adds that these savages, according to the uniform tra- 
dition of the Mexicans who disposessed them, came from the 



192 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XVIII. 



country since called New Mexico, and from the neighborhood of 
California ; consequently North America must have been inhabited 
many ages before it could receive any inhabitants from Norway by 
way of Greenland, etc. 

The Flemish author then returns to the Scythians, between 
whom and the Americans he draws a parallel. He observes that 
many nations of them to the north of the Caspian Sea led a wan- 
dering life ; which, as well as many other of their customs and 
ways of living, agrees, in many circumstances, with the Indians of 
America. And though the resemblances are not absolutely per- 
fect, yet the emigrants, even before they left their own country, 
differed from each other, and went not by the same name. Their 
change of abode affected what remained. He further says that a 
similar likeness exists between several American nations and the 
Samoides,who are settled, according to the Russian account, on the 
great River Oby. And it is more rational, continues he, to sup- 
pose that colonies of their nation passed over to America by cross- 
ing the icy sea on their sledges than for the Norwegians to travel 
all the way Grotius has marked out for them. 

Emanuel de Moraez, a Portuguese, in his history of Brazil, as- 
serts that America has been wholly peopled by the Carthaginians 
and Israelites. He brings, as a proof of this assertion, the discov- 
eries the former are known to have made at a great distance be- 
yond the coast of Africa, the progress of which being put a stop 
to by the Senate of Carthage, those who happened to be then in 
the newly discovered countries, being cut off from all communi- 
cation with their countrymen, and destitute of many necessaries 
of life, fell into a state of barbarism. As to the Israelites, this 
author thinks that nothing but circumcision is wanted in order to 
constitute a perfect resemblance between them and the Brazilians.* 

George de Huron, a learned Dutchman, has likewise written on 
the subject. He believes that the first founders of the Indian 
colonies were Scythians ; that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians 
afterwards got footing in America across the Atlantic Ocean, and 
the Chinese by way of the Pacific, and that other nations might, 
from time to time, have landed there by one or other of these 
ways, or might possibly have been thrown on the coasts by tem- 
pests, since through the whole extent of that continent, both in its 
northern and southern parts, we meet with undoubted marks of a 
mixture of northern nations with those who have come from other 
places, etc. 

Pierre de Charlevoix, a Frenchman, who in his journal of a voy- 
* Indian circumcision is mentioned by an author. 



CHAP. XVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



193 



age to North America, made so lately as the year 1720, has reca- 
pitulated the opinion of a variety of authors on this head, to which 
he has subjoined his own conjectures. He quotes both Solinus 
and Pliny to prove that the Scythian Anthropophagi once depopu- 
lated a great extent of country as far as the promontory of Tabin ; 
and also an author of a later date, Marko Polo, a Venetian, who, 
he says, tells us that to the northeast of China and Tartary there 
are vast uninhabited countries which might be sufficient to con- 
firm any conjectures concerning the retreat of a great number of 
Scythians into America. To this he adds that we find in the an- 
cients the names of some of these nations. Pliny speaks of the 
Tabians, Solinus mentions the Apulians, who had for neighbors 
the Massagetes, whom Pliny since assures us to have entirely dis- 
appeared. Ammianus Marcellinus expressly tells us that the fear 
of the Anthropophagi obliged several of the inhabitants of those 
countries to take refuge elsewhere. From all these authorities 
Charlevoix concludes that there is at least room to conjecture that 
more than one nation in America had the Scythian or Tartarian 
original. 

I shall only add, to give my reader a more comprehensive view 
of Charlevoix's dissertation, the method he proposes to come at the 
truth of what we are in search of. The only means by which 
this can be done, he says, is by comparing the language of the 
Americans with the different nations from whence w T e might sup- 
pose they have peregrinated. If we compare the former with those 
w T ords that are considered as primitives, it might possibly set us 
upon some happy discovery. And this way of ascending to the 
original of nations, which is by far the least equivocal, is not so 
difficult as might be imagined. We have had, and still have, 
travellers and missionaries who attained the languages that are 
spoken in all the provinces of the New World ; it would only be 
necessary to make a collection of their grammars and vocabula- 
ries, and to collate them with the dead and living languages of 
the Old World, that pass for originals, and the similarity might 
easily be traced. Even the different dialects, in spite of the altera- 
tions they have undergone, still retain enough of the mother 
tongue to furnish considerable light.* 

Any inquiry into the manners, customs, religion or traditions 
of the Americans, in order to discover, by that means, their origin, 
he thinks would prove fallacious. Ancient traditions are effaced 

* This suggestion, made 175 years ago by a very learned man, has not, I be- 
lieve, ever been acted on, and yet colleges have multiplied, and so have their 
endowments, and so have millionaires and missionaries. 

13 



194 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIX. 



from the minds of such as either have not or for several ages have 
been without those helps that are necessary to preserve them. 
And in this situation is full one- half of the world. New events 
and new arrangements of things give rise to new traditions which 
efface the former and are themselves effaced in turn. After one or 
two centuries have passed there no longer remain any traces of 
the first traditions, and thus we are involved in a state of uncer- 
tainty. As we are destitute of historical monuments, there is noth- 
ing but a knowledge of the primitive languages that is capable of 
throwing any light upon these clouds of impenetrable darkness. 

By this inquiry we should, at least, be satisfied, among that 
prodigious number of various nations inhabiting America and 
differing so much in languages from each other, which are those 
that make use of words totally and entirely different from those of 
the Old World, and who consequently must be reckoned to have 
passed over to America in the earliest ages, and which those that, 
from the analogy of their language with such as are at present used 
in the three other parts of the globe, leave room to judge that their 
migration has been more recent.* 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Tumuli — Ucita — Cutifachiqui — Cartersville Mounds— Idols— Casquin — Capaha 
— Breckenridge's Description of Capaha — The Tensas Mounds — Tonti and 
the Tensas Indians — The Destruction of their Temple. 

On Friday, the 30th of May, 1539, De Soto landed in Florida 
two leagues from a town of an Indian chief called Ucita. " The 
chief's house stood near the shore, upon a very high mount made 
by hand for strength. At another end of the town stood the 
church, and on the top of it stood a fowl made of wood, with 
gilded eyes. Here were found some pearls of small value, spoiled 
by the fire, which the Indians do pierce and string them like 
beads, and wear them about their necks and wrists, and they 
esteem them very much. The houses were made of timber and 
covered with palm leaves." The Elvas Narrative tells how Ortez, 
being sent in a vessel back to Cuba by Narvaez, was captured, 
and how Ucita gave him the charge of keeping the temple, " be- 

* It will be seen, at the end of this book, that Jefferson and Volney were of 
the same opinion as Charlevoix. 




The Tumuli of Cofacique. 



CHAP. XIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



L95 



cause that, by night, the wolves did carry away the corpses out 
of the same." 

Cutifachiqui appears to have been a flourishing town on the left, 
or east, bank of the Savannah River. The river at the town was 
so wide, deep, and rapid that several horses were drowned when 
the Spaniards drove them into the river to swim across it. Charles 
C. Jones, author of the " Antiquities of the Southern Indians," 
says : " Tradition designates Silver Bluff as the site of the ancient 
village of Cutifachiqui— a marked group of ancient tumuli resting 
upon the left bank of the Savannah River, some twelve or fifteen 
miles below the city of Augusta. Thirty-five years ago the group 
numbered six mounds, but the restless river, encroaching steadily 
upon the Carolina shore, has already rolled its waters over two 
of them, while other two have so far yielded to the levelling in- 
fluence of the plowshare as to be almost entirely obliterated. 
Consequently but two remain, and they only in major part, one- 
third of each having been washed away by the current; and the 
day is probably not far distant when tradition only will designate 
the spot once memorable in the annals of a former race as the 
site of monuments of unusual size and interest [15]. 

" The largest tumulus rises thirty-seven feet above the plain, 
and forty-seven above the water-line. Measured east and west, 
its summit diameter was fifty-eight feet, while in consequence of the 
encroachment of the river, when measured in a northerly and 
southerly direction, it fell a little short of thirty-eight feet. Its 
base diameter in an easterly and westerly direction was one hun- 
dred and eighty-five feet. This tumulus may be truthfully de- 
scribed as a truncated cone, its sides sloping gently and evenly, 
and its apex-surface level. If terraces ever existed, they are no 
longer apparent. The western flank of this mound was extended 
for a distance some twenty yards or more beyond the point where 
it otherwise would have terminated, respect being had to the con- 
figuration of the eastern and southern slopes. About two feet 
below the present surface of this extension is a continuous layer 
of charcoal, baked earth, ashes, broken pottery, shells, and bones. 
This layer is about twelve inches thick. So far as our examina- 
tion extended — and it was but partial — the admixture of human 
bones was very slight, the bones, of which there were vast num- 
bers, consisting of those of animals and birds native to this region. 
This stratum can be traced along the water-front of the mound, 
as though it existed prior to its construction. The superincum- 
bent mass of earth seems to have been heaped above it. Where it 
penetrates the tumulus it is well-nigh coincident with a prolon- 



196 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XIX. 



gation of what was at that time the surface of the surrounding 
swamp. 

" The mound itself is composed of the alluvium of the adjacent 
field, which is a micaceous clay, richly impregnated with vegetable 
mould. No traces of inhumation could be perceived, and the com- 
position of the tumulus was homogenous as far as ascertained. 

" One hundred and twenty-five feet due east of this large tumu- 
lus is the smaller mound. Its appearance, general outline, and 
composition are so nearly analogous to those of the larger mound 
that a specific description is scarcely necessary. It may be re- 
marked, however, that, possessing a base diameter of one hundred 
and fourteen feet, it rises fifteen feet above the surface of the 
ground, and twenty-five feet above the level of the river. 

" These tumuli were, in days long since numbered with an un- 
recorded past, isolated by a moat whose traces are still quite observ- 
able. The enclosed space, the river forming the northern bound- 
ary, contains a conjectured area of about eight acres. Commencing 
at the river, eastwardly of the smaller mound, and distant from 
its flank some thirty yards, this ditch extends in a southerly 
direction until it merges into what now seems to be a natural 
lagoon. Following this in a westerly course, it finally leaves it, and 
thence runs almost clue north to the river, into which it empties 
at about eighty yards distance from the western flank of the larger 
tumulus. Here the communication with the river is still perfect, 
but the upper mouth of this moat is now dry. It varies in width 
from twenty to forty feet, and is in some parts wider still."* 

The following is from accounts of De Soto's expedition : 

" Within a league and a half above this town were great towns 
depeopled and overgrown with grass, which showed that they had 
long been without inhabitants. The people of Cafaciqui were 
brown, well made, and well proportioned, and more civil than any 
they had met in all the country of Florida, and all of them went 
shod and clothed. 

The governor opened a large temple built in the woods in which 
were buried the chiefs of the country, and took from it a quantity 
of pearls, and little babies and birds made of them, which were 
spoiled by being buried in the ground. We dug up two Spanish 
axes, a chaplet of wild olive seed, and some small beads resem- 

* From this description it appears that the inhabitants of this town took 
advantage of a lake extending parallel, or nearly so, to the river, to protect 
their town by cutting, from near each extremity of this lake, a ditch to the 
river, thus surrounding it with water. Abridged from the "Antiquities of the 
Southern Indians," by Charles C. Jones. 




The Tumuli near Cartersvieee, Georgia. 



CHAP. XIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



197 



bling those we had brought from Spain for the purpose of trading 
with the Indians. We conjectured they had obtained these things 
by trading with the companions of Vasquez de Ayllon, who went 
to this country in the year 1525. The Indians told us the sea was; 
only about thirty leagues distant, and that the haven of St. Helena 
was two days' journey from this town."* 

The next mound mentioned by the early authors of De Soto's 
expedition into Florida is the great mound two miles below Car- 
tersville, in Bartow county, in the State of Georgia, and near the 
Etowah river. Garcillasso says : 

" They (the Spaniards) entered into the capital of Guachoula, 
situated among many streams which pass on both sides of the 
town and come from the mountains which are round about. The 
chief received the general and lodged him in his house, which 
was upon a mound with a terrace around it, where six men could 
promenade abreast." 

The following, I believe, sufficiently shows that this mound is 
the one mentioned near Cartersville : From there De Soto went 
to Iciaha. " To go there he descended along the many streams 
which pass by Guachoula, and which unite at some distance from 
there and make a river so powerful that in the province of Iciaha, 
distant about thirty leagues from the other, it is larger than the Gua- 
dalquiver, which passes by Seville. The capital of Iciaha is at the 
point of an i slan d of more than five leagues. The town was on an 
island between two arms of a river, and was seated nigh one of 
them. The river divided itself into those two branches two cross- 
bow shots above the town, and meet again a league below the 
same. The plain between both the branches is sometimes one 
cross-bow shot, sometimes two cross-bow shots over. The troops 
marched along the island, and at five leagues from Iciaha where 
the river of this country unites with that of the country into 
which they were entering,f they came to the capital of Acosta ; 
from there they entered into the province of Coca (Coosa). 

I shall now give the description of this mound [16] and its local- 
ity, contained in the "Antiquities of the Southern Indians," by 
Charles C. Jones, of Georgia : 

" Viewed as a whole, this group is the most remarkable within 
the confines of the State. These mounds are situated in the midst 
of a beautiful and fertile valley. They occupy a central position 
in an area of some Mty acres, bounded on the south and east by 
the Etowah river, and on the north and west by a large ditch or 

* "Biedma's" and " Elva's Narrative." 

t The junction of the Etowah and Oostenaula makes the Coosa. 



198 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIN. 



artificial canal, which at its lower end communicates directly with 
the river. This moat at present varies in depth from five to 
twenty-five feet, and in width from twenty to seventy-five feet.* 
No parapets or earthworks appear upon the edges. Along its 
lines are two reservoirs of about an acre each, of an average depth 
of not less than twenty feet. Its upper end extends into an arti- 
ficial pond elliptical in form and somewhat deeper than the two 
reservoirs. 

Within the enclosure formed by this moat and the river 
are seven mounds. Three of them are pre-eminent in size, and 
one far surpassing the others both in its proportions and in the 
degree of interest which attaches to it. Composed of earth, sim- 
ple but impressive in form, it seems calculated for an almost end- 
less duration. The soil, gravel and smaller stones taken from the 
moat and the reservoirs were expended in the construction of these 
tumuli. The surface of the ground for a considerable distance 
around the northern bases was then removed and placed upon 
their summits. Viewed from the north the valley dips toward the 
mounds, so that they appear to lift themselves from out a basin. 

The central tumulus rises about sixty-five feet above the level of 
the valley. It is entirely artificial, consisting wholly of the earth 
taken from the moat and the excavations in connection with the 
soil collected around its base. It has received no assistance what- 
ever from any natural hill or elevation. In general outline it may 
be regarded as quadrangular, if we disregard a slight angle to the 
south. That taken into account its form is pentagonal, with sum- 
mit admeasurements as follows : Length of northern side, one 
hundred and fifty feet : of eastern side, one hundred and sixty 
feet : of south-eastern side one hundred feet; of southern side, nine- 
ty feet : and of western side, one hundred feet. Its longest apex 
diameter, from east to west, is two hundred and twenty-five feet, 
and from north to south about two hundred and twenty feet. On 
its summit this tumulus is nearly level. Shorn of the luxuriant 
vegetation and tall fruit trees, which at one time crowned it on 
every side, the outlines of this mound stand in bold relief. Its 
angles are still sharply defined. f The established approach to the 
top is from the east. Its ascent was accomplished through the 
intervention of terraces rising one above the other, inclined planes 
leading from the one to the other.! These terraces are sixty-five 

* It is probable that some, if not most, of these large moats were originally 
sluices or bayous, or small branches of a river forming an island. 

t " Antiquities of the Southern Indians" was published April, 1873. 

i "These inclined planes have been considerably worn away by the elements, 
so that this main approach reminds the observer of a broad, winding ramp." 



CHAP. XIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



199 



feet in width, and extend from the mound toward the southeasl 
Near the eastern angle a pathway leads to the top. 

East of this large central mound, and so near that their flanks 
meet and mingle, stands a smaller mound, about thirty-five feet 
high, originally quadrangular, now nearly circular in form, and 
with a summit diameter of one hundred feet. From its western 
slope is an easy and immediate communication with the terraces 
of the central tumulus. Two hundred and fifty feet in a westerly 
direction from this mound, and distant some sixty feet in a south- 
erly direction from the central mound, is the third and last of this 
immediate group. Pentagonal in form, it has an altitude of 
twenty -three feet. It is uniformly level at the top, and its apex 
diameters, measured at right angles, were respectively ninety-two 
and sixty-eight feet. 

East of this group, and within the enclosure, is a chain of four 
sepulchral mounds, ovoidal in shape. Nothing, aside from their 
location in the vicinity of these larger tumuli, and their being 
within the area formed by the canal and the river, distinguishes 
them from numerous earth-mounds scattered here and there 
throughout the length and breadth of the Etowah and Oostenaula 
Valleys. 

The artificial elevation lying north-west of the central group is 
remarkable for its superficial area, and is completely surrounded 
by the moat, which at that point divides with a view to its enclo- 
sure. The slope of the sides of these tumuli is just such as would 
be assumed by a gradual accretion of earth successively deposited 
in small quantities from above." 

We have the positive testimony of the Cherokees that they had 
not even a tradition of the race by whom these tumuli had been 
raised. During the period of our acquaintance with them idol- 
worship did not exist among the Cherokees, and yet within this 
enclosure three stone idols have been found, and numerous terra- 
cotta images, fashioned after the similitude of man, beast and bird. 
Of these idols, two, cut from a dark sandstone, were respectively 
twelve and fifteen inches high, and represented the male human 
figure in a sitting posture, the knees drawn up almost upon a level 
with the chin, the hands resting upon and clasping either knee. 
The third and most carefully sculptured Indian idol the writer 
has ever seen was a female figure made of dark talcose slate. 

In 1859 the writer examined an idol which had been ploughed 
up near the large mound on the Etowah River. It was made of 
coarse, dark sandstone, and was twelve inches high. The chin 
and forehead were retreating. The hair was gathered into a knot 



200 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIX. 



behind. The face was upturned, and the eyes were angular. 
Unfortunately this image was lost or destroyed amid the desola- 
tion consequent upon Sherman's march through Georgia, in 1864, 
but its place has been supplied by another recently found in the 
same neighborhood. It was ploughed up near the base of the 
large tumulus, and is certainly the most interesting idol thus far 
discovered in this State (Georgia). It is a female figure in a sit- 
ting posture. Its legs, however, are entirety rudimentary and 
unformed. Its height is fifteen inches and three-quarters, and its 
weight thirty-three and a half pounds. Cut out of a soft talcose 
rock, originally of a grayish hue, it has in time been so much dis- 
colored that it now presents a ferruginous appearance. Below the 
navel, and enveloping the buttocks and rudimentary thighs, is a 
hip dress, ornamented both on the left side and behind by rectan- 
gular, circular and irregular lines. The ears are pierced, and the 
head is entirety bald. In the centre of the top of the head is a 
drilled hole, half an inch in depth, and five-tenths of an inch in 
diameter. This probably formed the socket in which some head 
ornament was seated. Springing from the back of the head and 
attached at the other end to the back, midway between the shoul- 
ders, is a substantial handle. The mammillary glands are sharply 
defined, and maidenly in their appearance. The ears, hands and 
navel are rudely formed. The impression conveyed is that of a 
dead, young flat-head Indian woman. The left arm has been 
broken off, but otherwise this idol is in a remarkable state of 
preservation. 

As we look upon this rude monument we are not entirely sure 
that it is emblematic of a past idolatry. It may be the effort of 
some primitive sculptor to perpetuate in stone the form and feat- 
ures of some Indian maiden, famous in the esteem of her family 
and tribe. It is seemingly older than the handiwork and super- 
stition of any Indian tribe of which we have any knowledge as a 
resident upon the beautiful banks of the Etowah. 

This rude stone image outliving the generation by which it was 
fashioned, and awakened from its long sleep of neglect and desue- 
tude, conveys to us of the present day a true conception of the 
ignorance and superstition of that by-gone age, affords physical 
insight into the condition of the sculptor's art at that remote 
period, and confirms the past existence of peoples whose names 
and origin are the subjects only of speculation, whose history is 
perpetuated simply by a few archaic relics, which, having success- 
fully wrestled with the disintegrating influences of time, remain 
uncrushed by the tread of another and a statelier civilization. 



CHAP. XIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



201 



The great age of these structures is demonstrated by the char- 
acter of the works themselves, which are not the hastily-erected 
monuments of migratory bands, but the ruins of temples, areas 
and burial-places carefully considered, of massive dimensions, and 
indicating the consecutive, combined and extensive labor of a con- 
siderable population permanently established. 

The eastern angle of the central mound is very prominent, and 
the upper surface in that direction is more elevated. Just here 
have been found traces of hearths or altars, giving ample token of 
the continued presence of fire, and perhaps of sacrifice. The ter- 
races lie towards the east, and there is that about this tumulus 
which induces the belief that it was erected for religious purposes, 
and that upon its eastern summit religious rites were performed 
and oblations offered to the great divinity, the sun. The broad 
terraces and adjacent dependent tumuli afforded space for the as- 
sembling of worshippers at the appointed hour, when, from the 
elevated eastern summit of the large tumulus, the eye of the offi- 
ciating priest caught the earliest rays of the rising sun, as, lifting 
his face from out the shadows of the distant hills, he smiled upon 
this beautiful valley.* 

There is a remarkable mound mentioned in the accounts of the 
De Soto expedition into Florida. When De Soto crossed the 
Mississippi river in the spring of 1541, he proceeded up that river 
to the St. Francis, which he crossed, and marched up along its left 
or east bank until he arrived at a place called Casqui, where, near 
the river, was a large artificial mound, on which he erected a cross. 
On this occasion mass was celebrated, and a procession formed. 
In speaking of the country along the St. Francis, it is said : " This 
country is higher, drier and more champaign than any part bor- 
dering near the river that until then they had seen. The woods 
were very thin. The governor travelled two days through the 
country of Casqui before he came to the town, and most of the 
way was always by champaign ground, which was full of great 
towns, so that from one town you might see two or three. 

The procession on the consecration of the cross amounted to 
about one thousand persons. On the other side of the river there 
were about fifteen or twenty thousand persons of all ages and 
sexes.f 

* "Antiquities of the Southern Indians." 

| Crowley's ridge borders the St. Francis river on the west or right side, and 
it is probable that this ridge adjoined the river at Casqui, and that the Indians 
from its sides or from its summit looked down across the river upon the pro- 
cession. 



202 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIX. 



From Casquin, De Soto went to Capaha, situated on the Missis- 
sippi river. The chief of Casquin accompanied him with five 
thousand warriors, without counting three thousand Indians 
loaded with provisions and very well armed, and arrived, at the 
end of three days, upon an eminence from which they saw the 
capital of Capaha, very well fortified. Upon Wednesday, the 19th 
of June, 1541, the governor entered Pacaha (Capaha). He 
lodged in the town, which was very great, walled and beset with 
towers, and many loopholes were in the towers and walls. Within 
a league and a half were great towns, all walled. Where the gov- 
ernor was lodged was a great lake that came near unto the wall, 
and it entered into a ditch that went round about the town, want- 
ing but little to environ it around. From the lake to the great 
river* was made a weir by which the fish came into it. With nets 
that were in the town they took as much as they would, and took 
they ever so much, there was no want perceived. 

This town is upon a small eminence, and has some five hundred 
good houses, and a ditch of ten or twelve fathoms, fifty paces 
wide in most places and forty at others. Besides, it was filled with 
water by means of a canal which they had extended from the 
place to the Chucagua. This canal was three leagues long, at 
least as deep as a pikestaff, and so wide that two large boats 
abreast could very easily ascend and descend. The ditch, which 
is filled by the canal, surrounds the town, except at a place that 
is closed by a palisade of large posts fixed in the ground, fastened 
by other cross-pieces of wood and plastered with loam and straw. 

The people of Casquin entered the temple where were the sep- 
ulchre of his (Capaha' s) ancestors, and carried off all its riches. 
They broke the coffins, and scattered on all sides the bones of the 
dead. Then, through rage, they trampled them under their feet, 
took away the heads of their (Casquin' s) people that were upon 
the ends of lances at the doors of the temple, and put in their 
places those which they had cut from the inhabitants of Capaha. 
Finally, they omitted nothing that could mortally offend their 
enemies. They even deliberated about burning the temple and 
the houses of the cacique, and were prevented only because they 
were afraid of offending De Soto, who arrived after this disorder .f 

* "Great River." The Mississippi, also called Chucagua. 

f Taken from the Elva Narrative, Biedma and Garcilasso. I have thus treated 
the reader to a particular description of an Indian fortified town, near the banks 
of the Mississippi, as it existed three hundred and fifty-four years ago, and from 
the numerous mounds still existing on the Yazoo and St. Francis bottoms, it is 
probable there were many of them there at that time. And this description of 
Capaha may in part be applied to Cofacique, showing that the canal which 



CHAP. XIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



203 



The country over which De Soto travelled from the St. Francis 
to the Mississippi, in June, 1541, has undergone great changes 
since then, and though the dreadful earthquake of December, 1811, 
is recorded, yet in the two hundred and seventy years that pre- 
ceded that event, changes as great may have happened. But 
whether the Indian fort above described is the one which Breck- 
enridge saw in 1811, and describes in his " Views of Louisiana," 
or some other Indian town, yet it will do to confirm the description 
of Garcilasso, and to show that such towns actually existed. Be- 
sides what has already been mentioned of the remains of the great 
Indian town of Cofacique, on the east or left bank of the Savannah 
river, gives additional evidence of the existence of such towns 
three hundred and fifty-four years ago, when all the fertile places 
from Cofacique, on the Savannah, to Capaha, on the Mississippi, 
were densely populated with Indians of the present race, for the 
names there used show that the Apalache, Coosa, Alabama, Chicka- 
saw, Chockchuma, Cappa and Kaskaskia tribes of Indians existed 
at that time. 

The following is Breckenridge's account of an ancient town near 
New Madrid, on the Mississippi river. He says : " The river at 
the upper end of the town (New Madrid) is called the Bayou St. 
John, and affords an excellent harbor.* Below the town there is 
a beautiful lake, six or eight feet deep, with a clear, sandy bottom, 
and communicating with the St. Francis and the Mississippi 
in high water. On the bank of this lake, about four miles from 
New Madrid, there is one of the largest Indian mounds in the 
western country. As near as I can compute, it is twelve hundred 
feet in circumference and about forty in height, level on the top, 
and surrounded with a ditch five feet deep and ten wide. In this 
neighborhood there are traces of a great population." 

Opposite Redney, a village on the east or left bank of the Mis- 
sissippi, and about twenty-five miles above Natchez, there are two 
or three lakes, Bruin, St. John and St. Joseph. There was for- 
merly a communication, between the Mississippi, at this point, and 
the Tensas, through a bayou and these lakes, on one of which is 
a very large mound. It was here that the Tensas Indians resided 
in 1682 and had a temple, probably on this mound. The folio w- 

partly surrounded that town was not only for defense, but to take fish and afford 
a harbor for their canoes and other boats. 

* Steamboats were not then in existence ; the " excellent harbor " was for keel- 
boats, barges, flat-boats and canoes. The first steamboat west of the Alleghany 
Mountains anchored at an island a few miles below New Madrid, the eve of the 
great earthquake of December, 1811. 



204 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XIX. 

ing is Tonti's account of his visit to this temple at that time : 
"When we arrived opposite the village of the Taencas, Mr. La 
Salle desired me to go to it and inform the chief of his arrival. I 
went with our guides and we had to carry a bark canoe for ten 
arpens, and to launch it on a small lake, on which their village was 
placed. I was surprised to find their cabins made of mud and 
covered with cane mats. The cabin of the chief was forty feet 
square, the wall ten feet high, a foot thick, and the roof, which 
was of a dome-shape, about fifteen feet high. I was not less sur- 
prised when on entering, I saw the chief seated on a camp bed, 
with three of his wives at his side, surrounded by more than sixty 
old men clothed in large white cloaks, which are made by the 
women out of the mulberry tree, and are tolerably well-worked. 
The women were clothed in the same manner, and every time the 
chief spoke to them, before answering him, they howled and cried 
out several times O-o-o ! to show their respect to him, for their 
chiefs are held in as much respect as our kings. No one drinks 
out of the chief's cup, no one can eat out of his plate, and no one 
passes before him ; when he walks they clean the path before him, 
When he dies they sacrifice his youngest wife, his house-steward, 
and a hundred men to accompany him into the other world. 
They have a form of worship, and adore the Sun. There is a tem- 
ple opposite the house of the chief, and similar to it, except that 
three eagles are placed on this temple, which look towards the 
rising sun. The temple is surrounded with strong mud walls, in 
which are fixed spikes, on which they place the heads of their 
enemies whom they sacrifice to the Sun. At the door of the tem- 
ple is a block of wood, on which is a great shell (vignot) and 
plaited around with the hair of their enemies, in a plait as thick 
as an arm, and about twenty fathoms (toises) long. The inside of 
the temple is naked; there is an altar in the middle, and at the 
foot of the altar three logs of wood are placed on end, and a fire is 
kept up day and night by two old priests who are the directors of 
their worship. These old men showed me a small cabinet, within 
the wall made of mats of cane. Desiring to see what was inside 
the old men prevented me, giving me to understand that their god 
was there. But I have since learned that it is the place where 
they keep their treasure, such as fine pearls, which they fish up in 
the neighborhood, and European merchandise. At the last quar- 
ter of the moon all the cabins make an offering of a dish of the 
best food they have, which is placed at the door of the temple. 
The old men take care to carry it away and make a good feast of 
it, with their families. Every spring they make a clearing, which 



CHAP. XIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



205 



they name 'the field of the Spirit." when all the men work to the 
sound of the drum. In the autumn the Indian corn is harv< sted 
with much ceremony, and stored in magazines until the month of 
June in the following year, when all the village assemble and in- 
vite their neighbors to eat it. They do not leave the ground until 
they have eaten it all. making great rejoicings the whole time. 
This is all I learned of this nation. The three villages below have 
the same custom."* 

The Tensas were united to the Natchez nation and had the same 
religion. When Iberville ascended the Misssissippi to the Tensas 
village, in 1700. this temple was destroyed and the following is the 
account of it by Penicaut. who was present on that occasion : 
'"On the 12th of April (1700) we left the Natchez and coasted 
along to the right where the river is bordered with high gravelly 
banks for a distance of twelve leagues : at the extremity of these 
bluffs is a place we called Petit Gulf, on account of a whirlpool 
formed by the river. Eight leagues higher up we came to Grand 
Gulf. A short distance above we landed on the left-hand side to 
visit a village situated four leagues in the interior. These Indians 
are called the Tensas. *\Ye were well received ; but I never saw a 
more sad. frightful and revolting spectacle than that which hap- 
pened the second day (16th of April) after our arrival in this vil- 
lage. A sudden storm burst upon us. The lightning struck the 
temple, burned up the idols, and reduced the whole to ashes. 
Quickly the Indians assemble around, making horrible cries, tear- 
ing out their hair, elevating their hands to heaven, their tawny 
visages turned towards the burning temple, invoking, with the 
howdings of devils possessed, the Great Spirit to come down and 
extinguish the flames. They took up mud. with which they be- 
smeared their bodies and faces. The fathers and mothers then 
brought their children, and after having strangled them, threw 
them into the flames. Mr. Iberville was horrified at seeing such a 
cruel spectacle, and gave orders to stop it by forcibly taking from 
them the little innocents : but with all our efforts, seventeen per- 
ished in this manner, and. had we not restrained them, the num- 
ber would have been over two hundred." f 

* u The three villages below" probably alludes to the Natchez villages. 

f Father Le Petit, speaking of the Natchez, says : " If one has distinguished 
himself by some act of zeal he is then publicly praised. Such a case happened 
the year 1702. The temple having been struck by lightning and reduced to 
ashes, seven or eight women cast their infants into the midst of the flames to ap- 
pease the wrath of heaven. The chief called these heroines and gave them 
great praises for the courage with which they sacrificed that which they held 
most dear." 

The preceding is from a note to " Charlevoix Journal" in the His. Col. of 



206 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XX. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Natchez — The Home of the Natchez — Tonti and LaSalle's Visit to the 
Tensas and Natchez in 1682 — Iberville's Visit to the Natchez in 1700 — 
Penicaut's Account of the Natchez — The Burial of the Great Female Sun — 
Dnpratz's Account of the Natchez — The Burial of the Stung Serpent. 

There is a strip of land along the east bank of the Mississippi 
river, extending from the Yazoo river to the Loftus Heights, a dis- 
tance of about a hundred miles, which is seventeen miles wide at 
the present town of Natchez, but its width varies, being not less, 
but considerably more at some places. Through this land flows 
the Big Black river, the Bayou Pierre, Coles creek, the St. Catha- 
rine creek, Second creek, and the Homochilto, all emptying into 
the Mississippi, except Second creek, which flows into the Homo- 
chilto. The territory is all high land, excepting along the water- 
courses, and is about two hundred feet above the ordinary level 
of the Mississippi, where the river washes it, as it does at Vicks- 
burg, Redney, Natchez, and Ellis Cliffs. In the intervening spaces 
along the river between these places there is but a narrow strip of 
alluvial land. Nearly the whole of this territory was originally 
covered with tall forest trees and dense canebrakes. The large 
game that ranged through these forests and brakes were buffalo, 
bear, deer, and panthers ; there were also beavers. It was the 
hunter's paradise, the richest and most beautiful country on the 
borders of the Lower Mississippi. This was the home of the 
Natchez Indians, and a part of what was known as the Natchez 
District. 

The chief village of the Natchez Indians was on St. Catharine's 
creek, and three miles east of the Mississippi, at the present town 
of Natchez, capital of Adams county, in the State of Mississippi. 
This creek, which has carried away a part of the bottom land 
and half of the principal mound of the village, after flowing about 
three miles, almost parallel to the course of the Mississippi, turns 
westwardly and nearly reaches the Mississippi at a point about 
three miles south of Natchez, and at the terminus of the bluff in 
the bottom-lands of the creek. At this point the stream turns 
south westwardly, flowing with the general course of the Missis- 
Louisiana. There is no account of the Temple of the Natchez being struck by 
lightning and reduced to ashes. It was the Temple of the Tensas that was de- 
stroyed by lightning. 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



207 



sippi, and empties into it at Ellis Cliffs. It is probable that the 
St. Catharine, at one time, flowed directly into the Mississippi at 
the bend where it turns southwestwardly, for near there is a quad- 
rangular mound about forty feet broad, sixty feet long and eight 
feet high. What is singular is that this mound should be built on 
the alluvium land, subject to inundation, and within about a hun- 
dred yards of the high land. It is plain that it was never built 
as a refuge in floods, but probably some superstitious idea required 
it to be placed near the junction of water-courses, or the advan- 
tages of the protection against enemies that they afforded and the 
facilities for fishing. It is probable that this mound has been con- 
siderably higher, and that the deposits of mud made by the Mis- 
sissippi reduced its elevation.* 

The first notice of the Natchez Indians is given by Tonti, who 
with La Salle descended the Mississippi from the mouth of the 
Illinois and arrived at that of the Mississippi the 9th of April, 
1682. Tonti says : u We left (Tensas) on the 22d (of March) and 
slept in an island ten leaguesf away. The next day we saw a 
canoe, and Mr. La Salle ordered me to chase it, which I did, and 
when I was just on the point of taking it more than one hundred 
men appeared on the bank of the river to defend their people. 
Mr. La Salle shouted out to me to come back, which I did. We 
went on and encamped opposite them. Afterwards, Mr. La Salle 
expressing a wish to meet them peaceably, I offered to carry to 
them the calumet of peace, and, embarking, went to them. At 
first they joined their hands, as a sign that they wished to be 
friends. I, who had but one hand, told our men to do the same 
thing, 

I made the chief men among them cross over to Mr. La Salle, 
who accompanied them to their village, three miles inland, J and 
passed the night there with some of his men. The next day he 
returned with the chief of the village where he had slept, who was 
a brother of the great chief of the Natchez. He conducted us to 

* The great number of mounds on the alluvial lands of the Mississippi river 
have doubtless been affected in the same way. The bases of these mounds are 
probably several feet below the present surface, and generally the deeper the 
base below the present surface, the greater the age of the mound. Some im- 
portant facts might be brought to light by a thorough examination of the 
bases of these mounds by persons properly qualified to make an investigation. 

f French leagues. The island was, probably, Fairchild's Island. 

X This village, probably, was either at the Sultzertown mound or at the large 
mound on the St. Catharine creek, and about eight or nine miles from the 
present town of Natchez, and about six miles above the Natchez village. It 
was known as the Koroa's village. 



208 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XX. 



his brother's village, situated on the hillside, near the river, at 
six leagues distance. We were well received there. This nation 
counts more than three hundred warriors. Here the men culti- 
vate the ground, hunt, and fish, as well as the Taencas, and their 
manners are the same." 

In the account of the " Taking Possession of Louisiana," in the 
Historical Collection of Louisiana, is the following, showing how 
populous was the Natchez District: "On the 20th of March we 
arrived at the Taencas. Mr. Tonti passed the night at one of their 
villages where there were seven hundred men carrying arms as- 
sembled in the place. Here again a peace was concluded. A 
peace was also made with the Koroas, whose chief came there 
from the principal village of the Koroas, two leagues distant from 
the Natchez. The two chiefs accompanied La Salle to the banks 
of the river. Here the Koroa chief embarked with him, to con- 
duct him to his village, where peace was again concluded with 
this nation, which, besides the five other villages of which it is 
composed, is allied to nearly forty others." 

Iberville visited the Natchez Indians in April, 1700, of which 
Penicaut speaks thus : " Upon leaving the village of the Oumas we 
kept on our upward route fifteen leagues above. The river here 
is divided into three channels, forming two islands about half a 
league in length, and one league above there we coasted along on 
the right hand (east) side, where the banks are of a prodigious 
height (Ellis Cliffs). At the head of these bluffs is a small river 
(St. Catharine) that comes from a village four leagues distant and 
one league back from the river. We landed in order to visit the 
village, where we were perfectly well received, These Indians are 
called the Natchez, and are the most civilized of all the nations. 
They were very kind and obliging to Mr. Iberville and his officers, 
who had arrived there on the 5th of March, and concluded a treaty 
of peace. They chanted the calumet of peace during three days, 
at the end of which we departed, laden with game and poultry. 

The Natchez inhabited one of the most beautiful countries in 
Louisiana. It lies about a league back from the Mississippi, and 
is embellished with magnificent and natural scenery, traversed 
with hills, covered with a splendid growth of odoriferous trees and 
plants, and watered with cool and limpid streams. After irrigat- 
ing the plains they unite in two branches, which encircle the vil- 
lages, and finally form a small river which flows over a gravelly 
bottom, and, after meandering two leagues through a beautifully 
undulating country, falls into the Mississippi. 

All the pleasures of a refined society are observed hy the great 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



■2 09 



nobles. They have none of the rude manners of the surrounding 
nations, and possess all the comforts of life. This nation is com- 
posed of thirty villages, but the one we visited was the largest, 
because it contained the dwelling of the great chief, whom they 
call the sun. which means noble. The men and women are well- 
made, and appropriately clothed. The women — among whom 
are many very beautiful — dress in white linen robes, which extend 
from their shoulders to their ankles, similar in make to the 
Adrienne, worn by French ladies. They manufacture it- from a 
species of plant and the inner bark of the young mulberry. 

The men clothe themselves in deerskins* (dressed >, from which 
they make a kind of skirt, or jacket, descending to their knees ; 
from thence to their ankles they wear leggings. Their language 
is soft and better modulated than their neighbors. The dress of 
the girls is different from that of the women, for they are only 
clad in a species of skirt, fastened around the waist, after the 
manner of our French women, who only wear petticoats. The 
skirts worn by the girls are sewn with tine white thread, and 
only cover their nakedness from their waist down to their knees. 
They are fastened with two strings, with tassels at the end of each. 
The front is ornamented with fringe. This garment is worn by 
the girls until the period of puberty, when they assume the 
woman's garment. They are very courteous and obliging, and 
fond of the French. It was really charming to us to behold them 
dancing at their feasts, arrayed in their beautiful and highly orna- 
mented skirts, and the women in their neat white robes. Their 
heads are enveloped in long black hair, which falls gracefully to 
their waists, and in many instances down to their ankles. 

Their dances are very graceful. The men dance with the 
women, and the boys with the girls. The quadrilles are always 
composed of twenty or thirty persons, with an equal number of 
boys and girls. It is not permitted to a married man to dance 
with a girl, nor a boy with a married woman. After having lighted 
two large torches, cut from some old pine tree, one is placed near 
the cabin of the chief and the other on the opposite side of the 

* Deerskins, when dressed by the Indians, are exactly like the chamois skins 
sold by the druggists. It was the clothinsr of the pioneers. About the year 
1831 I saw at the Indian Queen Hotel, at Philadelphia, the wife of a Cherokee 
chief, Mcintosh (I believe *. Her dress was of buckskin, neatly ornamented 
with beads. It fitted closely to her bust and showed its form distinctly, and 
from the waist fell loosely to just below the knees, where it terminated in an 
ornamented fringe. Her legs were enclosed in buckskin leggings, ornamented 
at the sides, outward. Her feet were shod with ornamented moccasius, extend- 
ing above the ankles. She was medium size, beautiful in figure, face and form. 

14 



210 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XX. 



great square, when, towards sundown, the master of ceremonies 
enters, followed by thirty couples, in regular order, who commence 
the dance at the tap of the drum and the sound of the voices of 
the spectators. Each dances in turn until midnight, when the 
married men and women retire, and give place to the young peo- 
ple, who keep up the dance until morning. This dance has a 
considerable resemblance to our French cotillion, with this differ- 
ence, that when a youth has danced with the girl at his side, he is 
permitted to conduct her without the village into one of the groves 
on the prairies, where he whispers sweet tales of love till each 
grow wearied. They then return to the village, and continue 
dancing until daylight. 

When an agreement is entered into between two young people 
they go together into the woods, and while the young man is 
hunting, the young woman constructs a cabin from the boughs 
and limbs of trees and foliage, and kindles a fire close by. If the 
young man has killed in the chase a buffalo or deer, he brings one- 
quarter to the cabin, and afterward they live together for the re- 
mainder of life. They roast a piece, which they eat for supper, 
and upon the morrow cany the rest to the house of the girl's father 
and mother in the village, notifying them of their intention, and at 
the same time dividing with them their game. After they dine 
together the husband takes his wife to his own cabin, and from 
that time she is prohibited from mingling in the dance with the 
boys and girls, or having intercourse with any other than her hus- 
band. She is obliged to work within doors, and her husband may 
repudiate her if he thinks her unfaithful, unless she has presented 
him with a child. 

The Great Chief orders the feasts, which usually continue eight 
or ten days. They generally take place when the chief is in want 
of any provisions or merchandise, such as flour, bacon, beans and 
other things, which are brought and placed at the door of his 
cabin, upon the last day of the feast. He has jurisdiction over 
all the villages, and sends his orders to them by two messengers, 
whom he calls Ouchil-tichou. The house of the Great Chief is of 
great extent, and can hold as many as four thousand persons,* over 
whom his power is as absolute as a king. The people are not al- 
lowed to approach him too closely, and must not address him 
nearer than four paces. His bed is on the right side of his cabin, 
composed of mats of very fine canes, across which is placed a 
bolster of feathers. The skins of deer are used for covering it 



* This is probably a mistake. 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



211 



in the summer, and those of bear and buffalo in winter. His wife 
is the only person who has the right to eat and sleep with him. 

When he arises from his bed, his relatives approach, and with 
uplifted arms utter frightful cries, but he does not even deign to 
notice them. The Great Chief of a noble family can only marry 
with a woman of plebeian race, but the children born of this union, 
whether boys or girls, are noble. 

It happened, during our visit, that the Great Female Sun died, 
and we were witnesses of her funeral obsequies, which were of the 
most tragical character that can be imagined. She was the Great 
Sun in her own right, and being dead, her husband, who was not 
of the noble family, was strangled by her eldest son, so that he 
might bear her company to the great village whither she had gone. 
On the outside of the cabin where she died they placed all her 
effects on a sort of bier or triumphal car, upon which was placed 
her body as well as that of her husband. Afterwards they brought 
and placed twelve small children upon it, whom they had stran- 
gled. These children were brought by their fathers and mothers, 
by the order of the eldest son of the Great Female Sun, who had 
the right, as her successor and as Great Chief, to put to death as 
many persons as he pleased to honor the funeral of his mother. 
Fourteen other scaffolds were afterward erected and decorated 
with branches of trees and paintings upon pieces of linen. On 
each scaffold they placed one of those they had strangled, to 
accompany the deceased to the other world, and these were sur- 
rounded by their relatives, dressed in fine white robes. They then 
formed a procession and marched to the great square in front of 
the Great Temple and commenced to dance. At the end of four 
days they began the ceremony of the march of death, the fathers 
and mothers of the strangled children holding them up in their 
arms. The eldest of these unfortunate children did not appear 
to be over three years of age. The fourteen other victims destined 
to be strangled were also marched in front of the Great Temple. 

The chiefs and relatives of those who were destined to be stran- 
gled, with their hair cut off, began their bowlings, while those who 
were destined to die kept on dancing and inarching around the 
cabin of the deceased, two by two, until it was set on fire. The 
fathers, who carried their strangled children in their arms, inarched 
four paces apart from each other, and at the distance of about ten 
paces threw them upon the ground before the Great Temple, and 
commenced dancing around them. When they deposited the 
body of the Great Female San in the temple, the fourteen victims, 
who stood before the door of the temple, were undressed, and, 



212 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XX. 



while seated on the ground, a cord with a noose was passed 
around the neck of each and a deerskin thrown over their heads. 
The relatives of the deceased then stood to the right and left 
of each victim, taking hold of the end of the cord around their 
necks, and at a given signal they pulled until their victim was 
dead. The bones of the victims who had been strangled were 
afterwards deprived of the flesh, and, when dried, were put into 
baskets and placed in the temple,* considering it -an honor and 
special privilege to have been sacrificed and placed there with the 
Great Female Sun. The barbarous custom of sacrificing their chil- 
dren to the Suns was kept up in spite of the efforts of the French 
missionaries to put a stop to it. 

The female posterity of the Suns always enjoy the privilege of 
their rank. The male and female of the Suns never intermarry. 
Their nobility ceases at the seventh generation ; they make it 
hereditary only in the female line. Their form of government is 
despotic. The whole nation is divided into nobles and common 
people called stinkards (miche-miche-quipy). They each have a lan- 
guage peculiar to themselves, that of the nobles being much purer 
and more copious. The Great Sun is the absolute master of the 
lives and property of the whole nation. The houses of the Suns 
are built upon mounds, and are distinguished from each other by 
their size. The mound upon which the Greater Sun is built is 
larger than the rest, and the sides of it are steeper. 

The temple in the village of the Great Sun is about thirty feet 
high and forty-eight feet in circumference, with the walls eight 
feet thick, and covered with a matting of cane, in which they 
keep up a perpetual fire. The wood used is of oak or hickory, 
stripped of its bark, and eight feet long. Guards are appointed 
alternately to watch the temple and keep up the sacred fire ; and 
if by accident the fire should go out, they break the heads of the 
guards with the wooden clubs they keep in the temple. At each 
new moon an offering of bread and flowers is made, which is for 
the use of those who guard it. Every morning and evening the 
Great Sun and his wife enter it to worship the idols of wood and 
stone. 

Dupratz says: I shall be more full in speaking of the Nat- 
chez, a populous nation among whom I lived the space of eight 
years, and whose sovereign, the chief of war, and the chief of the 
keepers of the temple, were among my most intimate friends. 
Besides, their manners were more civilized, their manner of think- 

* This confirms what Garcelasso says, in this respect, of the Temple of Tal- 
meco at Cofaciqui. 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



213 



ing more just and fuller of sentiment, their customs more reason- 
able, and their ceremonies more natural and serious, on all which 
accounts they were eminently distinguished above the other 
nations. 

Their language is easy in pronunciation and expressive in 
terms. The natives, like the orientals, speak much in figurative 
style — the Natchez in particular, more than any other people of 
Louisiana.* They have two languages, that of the nobles and that 
of the people, and both are copious. f 

From my conversation with the chief of the guardians of the 
temple, I discovered that they acknowledged a Supreme Being, 
whom they called Coyocop-Chill — the spirit infinitely great. The word 
Chill signifies the most superlative degree of perfection. God, 
according to the definition of the guardian of the temple, was so 
great and so powerful that in comparison to him all other kings 
were as nothing ; he had made all that we see, all that we can 
see, and all that we cannot see ; he was so good that he could 
not do ill to any one, even if he had a mind to it. They believed 
that God had made all things by his will, that nevertheless the 
little spirits, who are his servants, might, by his order, have made 
many excellent works in the universe, which we admire; but that 
God himself had formed man with his own hands. 

The guardian added that these spirits were always present before 
God, ready to execute his pleasure with an extreme diligence; 
that the air was filled with other spirits, some good, some wicked ; 
and that the latter had a chief who was more wicked than them 
all ; that God had found him so wicked that he had bound him 
forever, so that the other spirits of the air no longer did so much 
harm, especially when they were by prayers entreated not to do 
it ; for it is one of the religious customs of these people to invoke 
the spirits of the air for rain or fair weather, according as each is 
needed. I have seen the Great Sun fast for nine days together, 
eating nothing but corn — maize — without meat or fish, drinking 
nothing but water, and abstaining from the company of his wives 
during the whole time. He underwent this rigorous fast out of 
complaisance to some Frenchmen, who had been complaining that 
it had not been raining for a long time. These inconsiderate per- 
sons had not remarked that, notwithstanding the want of rain, the 

* Louisiana at that time, 1717, embraced a vast extent of country, nearly the 
whole of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. 

f Different words are used to express the same idea in speaking to a noble and 
in speaking to a plebeian. With the Mexicans it was the same custom. 



214 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XX. 



fruits of the earth had not suffered, as the dews are so plentiful 
in summer as to fully supply that deficiency.* 

The guardian of the temple having told me that God had made 
man with his own hands, I asked him if he knew how that was 
done. He answered, " that God had kneaded some clay, such as 
that which potters use, and had made it into a little man ; and 
that, after having examined it, and found it well formed, he blew 
upon his work, and forthwith that little man had life, grew, acted, 
walked, and found himself a man perfectly well shaped." As he 
made no mention of the women, I asked him how he believed she 
was made. He told me, " that probably in the same manner as 
the men ; that their ancient speech made no mention of any differ- 
ence, only told them that the man was made first, and was the 
strongest and most courageous, because he was to be the head and 
support of the woman, who was made to be his companion.'' f 

I next proceeded to ask him who had taught them to build a 
temple ; whence had they their eternal fire, which they preserved 
with so much care, and who was the person who first instituted 
their feasts. He replied : " A great number of years ago there 
appeared among us a man and his wife, who came down from the 
sun. J Not that they believed that the Sun had a wife who bore 
him children, or that these were the descendants of the Sun, but 
that when they first appeared among us they were so bright and lu- 
minous § that we had no difficulty to believe that they came down 
from the sun. This man told us that having seen from on high 
that we did not govern ourselves well, that we had no master, that 
each of us had presumption enough to think himself capable of 
governing others, while he could not even conduct himself, he had 
thought fit to come down among us to teach us to live better. 

* The dews are so great in that latitude that they drip from the leaves of the 
cotton-plant. 

f The religious faith of a nation is indicative of its civilization and intelli- 
gence. Compare the present religious faiths, and even religious sects of a nation, 
and see their marked difference in intelligence and civil progress. 

X The Indians believed the Spaniards descended from the Sun, called them 
tueles, the word to express gods ; and so in the origin of the tradition of a nation, 
it is some more civilized and enlightened being who introduces their religion, 
and this religion has always the divine sanction in order to be binding on the 
people, who blindly submit to superior and mysterious powers, while they con- 
temn the wisest of their own. 

\ This bright and luminous appearance may have been caused by the brilliant 
armor they wore. When Alexander leaped from the wall of a city of the Malli 
among his enemies, the brilliancy of his armor, in his descent, astonished his 
enemies and caused them to recoil. 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA, 



215 



He moreover told us that, in order to live in peace among our- 
selves and to please the Supreme Spirit, we must indispensably 
observe the following points : We must never kill any one but in 
defence of our own lives ; we must never know any other women 
besides our own ; we must never take anything that belonged to 
another; we must never lie nor get drunk; we must not be avari- 
cious, but must give liberally and with joy a part of what we have 
to others who are in want, and generously share our substance 
with those who are in need of it. 

The words of this man deeply affected us, for he spoke them 
with authority, and he procured the respect even of the old men 
themselves, though he reprehended them as freely as the rest. The 
next day we offered to acknowledge him as our sovereign. He, at 
first, refused, saying that he should not be obeyed and that the 
disobedient would infallibly die, but at length he accepted the 
offer that was made him, on the following conditions : 

That we would go and inhabit another country better than that 
in which we were, which he would show us ; that we would after- 
wards live conformable to the instructions he had given us; that 
we would promise never to acknowledge any other sovereign but 
him and his descendants ; that the nobility should be perpetuated 
by the women in this manner : If I, said he, have male and female 
children, they being brothers and sisters cannot marry together ; 
the eldest boy may choose a wife from among the people, but his 
sons shall be only nobles ; the children of the elder girl, on the 
other hand, shall be princes and princesses and her eldest son be 
sovereign, but her eldest daughter be mother of the next sov- 
ereign, even though she should marry one of the common people ; 
and in defect of the eldest daughter, the next female relation to 
the person reigning shall be the mother of the future sovereign ; 
the sons of the sovereign and princes shall lose their rank, but the 
daughters shall preserve theirs. 

He then told us that in order to preserve the excellent precepts 
he had given us, it was necessary to build a temple, into which it 
should be lawful for none but the princes and princesses to enter, 
to speak to the Spirit* that in the temple they should eternally 

* In regard to the Temple of Jerusalem : " The people were never to go into 
it ; only the priests and such as waited on them, and that at stated times, morn- 
ing and evening, to light the lamps and offer bread and perfumes. The high 
priest was the only person who entered into the sanctuary where the Ark of the 
Covenant stood, nor did he go in oftener than once a year." 

Before the temple in the great court was the altar for holocaust, or whole burnt- 
offerings, that is to say a platfoim thirty cubits square and fifteen high. The 
priest went up to it by an easy ascent without steps, to place the wood and victims 
in order. 



216 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XX. 



preserve a fire, which he would bring down from the sun, from 
whence he himself had descended ; that the wood with which the 
fire was supplied should be pure wood without bark ; that eight 
wise men of the nation should be chosen for guarding the fire 
night and day ; that these eight men should have a chief, who 
should see them do their duty ; and that if any of them failed in 
it, he should be put to death. He likewise ordered another temple 
to be built in a distant part of our nation, which was then very 
populous, and the eternal fire to be kept there also, that in case 
it should be extinguished in the one it might be brought from the 
other ; in which case, until it was again lighted, the nation should 
be afflicted with a great mortality. 

Our nation having consented to these conditions he agreed to be 
our sovereign, and in presence of all the people he brought clown 
the fire from the sun upon some wood of the walnut tree which he 
had prepared, which fire was deposited in both the temples. He 
lived a long time and saw his children's children. To conclude, he 
instituted our feasts such as you see them. 

The Natchez have neither sacrifices, libations, nor offerings; 
their whole worship consists in preserving the eternal fire, and that 
the Great Sun watches over with peculiar attention. The Sun, who 
reigned when I was in the country, was extremely solicitous about 
it, and visited the temple every day. His vigilance had been 
awakened by a terrible hurricane, which some years before had 
happened in the country. 

The Natchez are brought up in a most perfect submission to 
their sovereign. The authority which their princes exercise over 
them is absolutely despotic, and can be compared to nothing but 
that of the first Ottoman emperors. Like these, the Great Sun is 
absolute master of the lives and estates of his subjects, which he 
disposes of at his pleasure, his will being the only law ; but he has 
this singular advantage over the Ottoman princes, that he has no 
occasion to fear any seditious tumult, or any conspiracy against his 
person. If he orders a man, guilt}^ of a capital crime, to be put to 
death, the criminal neither supplicates, nor procures intercession 
to be made for his life, nor attempts to run away. The order of 
the sovereign is executed on the spot and nobody murmurs. But 
however absolute the authority of the Great Sun may be, and 
although a number of warriors and others attach themselves to 
him, to serve him, to follow him wherever he goes, and to hunt for 
him, yet he raises no stated impositions ; and what he receives 
from these people appears given, not so much as a right due as a 
voluntary homage and a testimony of their love and gratitude. 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



217 



The Natchez begin their year in the month of March, and divide 
it into thirteen moons. At every moon they celebrate a feast, 
which takes its name from the principal fruits reaped in the pre- 
ceding moon, or from the animals which are then usually hunted. 
I shall give an account of one or two of these feasts as concisely 
as I can. 

The first moon is called that of the Deer, and begins their new 
year, which is celebrated by them with universal joy, and is at 
the same time an anniversary memorial of one of the most inter- 
esting events in their history. In former times a Great Sun, upon 
hearing a sudden tumult in his village, had left his hut in a great 
hurry in order to appease it, and fell into the hands of his ene- 
mies, but was quickly after rescued by his warriors, who repulsed 
the invaders and put them to flight. In order to preserve the re- 
membrance of this honorable exploit the warriors divide them- 
selves into two bodies, distinguished from each other by the color 
of their feathers. One of these bodies represent the invaders, and, 
after raising loud shouts and cries, seize the Great Sun, who comes 
out of his hut undressed, and rubbing his eyes, as though he were 
just awake. The Great Sun defends himself intrepidly with a 
wooden tomahawk, and lays a great many of his enemies upon 
the ground, without, however, giving them a single blow, for he 
only seems to touch them with his weapon. In the meantime the 
other party comes out of their ambuscade, attacks the invaders, 
and, after fighting with them for some time, rescue their prince and 
drive them into a wood, which is represented by an arbor made 
of canes. During the whole time of the skirmish the parties keep 
up the war-cry, or the cry of terror, as each of them seem to be 
victors or vanquished. The Great Sun is brought back to his hut 
in a triumphal manner, and the old men, women and children, 
who were spectators of the engagement, rend the sky with their 
joyful acclamations. The Great Sun continues in his hut about 
half an hour, to repose himself after his great fatigues, which are 
such that an actor of thirty years of age would with difficulty 
have supported them, and he, however, when I saw this feast, was 
above ninety. He then makes his appearance again to the peo- 
ple, who salute him with loud acclamations, which cease upon his 
proceeding towards the temple. When he is arrived in the middle 
of the court before the temple he makes several gesticulations, 
then stretches out his arms horizontally, and remains in that posi- 
tion motionless as a statue for half an hour. He is then relieved 
by the master of the ceremonies, who places himself in the same 
attitude, and half an hour after is relieved by the great chief of 



218 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XX. 



war. who remains as long in the same posture. When this cere- 
mony is over the Great Sun, who when he was relieved had re- 
turned to his hut, appears again before the people in the orna- 
ments of his dignity, is placed upon his throne, which is a large 
stool with four feet, cut out of one piece of wood, has a fine 
buffalo-skin thrown over his shoulders and several furs laid upon 
his feet, and receives various presents from the women, who all 
the time continue to express their joy by their shouts and accla- 
mations. Strangers are then invited to dine with the Girat Sun, 
and in the evening there is a dance in his hut, which is about 
thirty feet square and twent}^ feet high, and, like the temple, is 
built upon a mound of earth about eight feet high and sixty feet 
over on the surface. 

The seventh is that of Maize or Great Corn. This feast is beyond 
doubt the most solemn of all. It principally consists in eating in 
common, and in a religious manner, of new corn which had been 
sown expressly with that design, with suitable ceremonies. This 
corn is sown upon a spot of ground never before cultivated, which 
ground is dressed and prepared b}^ the warriors alone, who also 
are the only persons that sow the corn, weed it, reap it, and gather 
it. When this corn is nearly ripe the warriors fix upon a place 
proper for the general feast, and close adjoining to that they form 
a round granary, the bottom and sides of which are of cane. This 
they fill with the corn, and when they have finished the harvest 
and covered the granary they acquaint the Great Sun, who appoints 
the day for the general feast. Some days before the feast they 
build huts, for the Great Sun and for all the other families, around 
the granary, that of the Great Sun being raised upon a mound of 
earth about two feet high. On the feast day the whole nation set 
out from their villages at sun-rising, leaving behind only the aged 
and infirm, who are unable to travel, and a few warriors who are 
to carry the Great Sun on a litter upon their shoulders. The seat 
of this litter is covered with several deerskins, and to its four sides 
are fastened four bars, which cross each other, and are supported 
by eight men, who at every hundred paces transfer their burden to 
eight other men, and thus successively transport it to the place 
where the feast is celebrated, which may be nearly two miles from 
the village. About nine o'clock the Great Sun comes out of his 
hut dressed in the ornaments of his dignity, and being placed on 
his litter, which has a canopy at the head formed of flowers, he is 
carried in a few minutes to the sacred granaiy, shouts of jo} r echo- 
ing on all sides. Before he alights he makes the tour of the whole 
place deliberately, and when he comes before the corn he salutes 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



219 



thrice with these words, hoo, hoo, hoo, lengthened and pronounced 
respectfully. The salutation is repeated by the whole nation, who 
pronounce the word hoo nine times distintly,and at the ninth time 
he alights and places himself on his throne. 

Immediately after they light a fire by rubbing two pieces of 
wood violently against each other, and when everything is prepared 
for dressing the corn the chief of war, accompanied by the warriors 
belonging to each family, presents himself before the throne, and 
addresses the Sun in these words : Speak, for I hear thee. The 
sovereign then rises up, bows towards the four quarters of the 
world, and advancing towards the granary, lifts his eyes and hands 
to heaven, and says, "Give us Corn," upon which the great chief 
of war, the princes and princesses, and all the men, thank him 
separately by pronouncing the word hoo. The corn is then dis- 
tributed, first to the female suns, and then to all the women, who 
run with it to their huts, and dress it with the utmost dispatch. 
When the corn is dressed in all the huts, a plate of it is put into 
the hands of the Great Sun, who presents it to the four quarters of 
the world,* and then says to the war chief, eat. Upon this signal 
the warriors begin to eat in all the huts, after them the boys of 
whatever age, and last of all the women. When the warriors 
have finished their repast, they form themselves into two choirs 
before the huts and sing war songs for half an hour, after which 
the War Chief, and all the warriors in succession, recount their 
brave exploits, and mention in a boasting manner the number of 
enemies they have killed.f The youths are next allowed to har- 
angue, and each tells in the best manner he can, not what he has 
done, but what he intends to do, and if his discourse merits ap- 
probation he is answered by a general hoo ; if not, the warriors 
hang down their heads and are silent. 

This great solemnity is concluded with a general dance by torch- 
light. Upwards of two hundred torches of dried canes, each of the 
thickness of a child, are lighted around the place, where the men 
and women often continue dancing till daylight. 

Next morning no person is seen abroad before the Great Sum 
comes out of his hut, which is generally about nine o'clock, and 
then upon a signal made by the drum, the warriors make their 

* This custom or ceremony is general among the Indians of North America, 
especially on all solemn occasions, as when smoking the pipe of peace, in making 
treaties, etc. The chief first presents the pipe to the four quarters of the world, 
gives a puff of smoke to each, and then passes it to the next person, who takes a 
suck or two, and passes it on, etc. 

f This ceremony is practiced among many of the North American tribes of 
Indians. 



220 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XX. 



appearance, distinguished into two troops by the feathers which 
the}* wear on their heads. One of these troops is headed by the 
Great Sun and the other by the War Chief, who begin a new diver- 
sion by tossing a ball stuffed with moss from the one to the other. 
The warriors quickly take part in the sport, and a violent contest 
ensues, which of the two parties shall drive the ball to the hut of 
the opposite chief. The diversion generally lasts two hours, and 
the victors are allowed to wear the feathers of superiority till the 
following year, or till the next time they play at ball. After this 
the warriors perform the war dance, and last of all they go and 
bathe. 

The rest of the day is emplo} T ed* as the preceding, for the feast 
holds as long as any of the corn remains. When it is all eaten, 
the Great Sun is carried back in his litter, and they all return to 
the village, after which he sends the warriors to hunt both for 
themselves and him. 

The feasts which I saw celebrated in the chief village of the 
Natchez, which is the residence of the Great Sun, are celebrated 
in the same manner in all the villages of the nation, which are each 
governed by a Sun, who is subordinate to the Great Sun, and ac- 
knowledges his absolute authority. 

The Suns are the descendants of the man and woman who pre- 
tended to have come down from the sun. Among other laws they 
gave to the Natchez, they ordained that their race should always 
be distinguished from the bulk of the nation, and that none of 
them should ever be put to death on any account. 

Although all the people of Louisiana* have nearly the same 
usages and customs, yet as any nation is more or less populous, it 
has more or fewer ceremonies. Thus, when the French first ar- 
rived in the colony, several nations kept up the eternal fire, and 
observed other religious ceremonies, which they have now disused 
since their numbers have been greathy diminished. Many of them 
still continue to have temples, but the common people never enter 
these, and no strangers unless particularly favored by the nation. 
As I was a particular friend of the sovereign of the Natchez, he 
showed me their temple, which is about thirt} T feet square, and 
stands upon an artificial mount about eight feet high, by the 
side of a small river (St. Catharine). The mount slopes insensi- 
bly from the main front, which is northward, but on the other 
side it is somewhat steeper. The four corners of the temple con- 
sist of four posts about a foot and a half in diameter and ten feet 
high, each made of the heart of the cypress-tree, which is incor- 

** The Louisiana of 1717. 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



221 



ruptible. The side-posts are of the same wood, but only about a 
foot square, and the walls are of mud about nine inches thick, 
so that on the inside there is a recess between every post. The 
inner space is divided from east to west into two apartments, 
one of which is twice as large as the other. In the largest apart- 
ment the eternal fire is kept, and there is likewise a table or altar 
in it about four feet high, six feet long, and two feet broad. Upon 
this table lie the bones of the late Great Sun, in a coffin of canes 
very neatly made. In the inner apartment, which is very dark, 
as it receives no light but from the door of communication, I could 
meet with nothing but two boards, on which were placed some 
things like small toys, which I had not light to peruse. The roof 
is in the form of a pavilion, and very neat both within and with- 
out, and on the top of it are placed three wooden birds twice as 
large as a goose, with their heads turned towards the east. The 
cornice and side-posts rise above the earth ten feet high, and it is 
said the latter are as much sunk in the ground. Besides the eight 
guardians of the temple, two of whom are always on the watch, 
and the chief of those guardians, there also belongs to the service 
of the temple a master of the ceremonies, who is also master of 
the mysteries ; since, according to them, he converses very famili- 
arly with the Spirit. Above all these persons is the Great Sun, 
who is at the same time chief priest and sovereign of the nation. 

The temples of some of the nations of Louisiana are very mean, 
and one would be very apt to take them for the huts of private per- 
sons ; but to those who are acquainted with their manners they 
are easily distinguishable, as they have always before the door two 
posts formed like the ancient Termini, that is, having the upper 
part cut into the shape of a man's head. The door of the temple, 
which is pretty weighty, is placed between the wall and these two 
posts, so that the children may not be able to remove it to go and 
play in the temple. The private huts have also posts before their 
doors, but these are never formed like Termini. 

None of the nations of Louisiana are acquainted with the cus- 
tom of burning their dead. The different American nations have 
a most religious attention for their dead, and have some particular 
custom in respect to them ; but all of them either inter them or 
place them in tombs, and carefully carry victuals to them for some 
time. These tombs are either within their temples or close ad- 
joining them or in their neighborhood. They are raised about 
three feet above the earth and rest upon four forked stakes fixed 
in the ground. The tomb, or rather bier, is about eight feet long 
and a foot and a half broad ; and after the body is placed upon it 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XX. 



a kind of basket-work of twigs is woven round it and covered 
with mud, an opening being left at the head for placing the vic- 
tuals that are presented to the dead persons .* When the body is 
all rotted but the bones, these are taken out of the tomb and placed 
in a box of canes, which is deposited in the temple. They usually 
Aveep and lament for the dead three days, but for those who are 
killed in war they make a much longer and more grievous la- 
mentation. 

Among the Natchez the death of any of their Suns is a most 
fatal event, for it is sure to be attended with the destruction of a 
great number of people of both sexes. 

Early in the spring of 1725 the Stung Serpent, who was the 
brother of the Great Sun, was seized with a mortal distemper, 
which filled the whole nation of the Natchez with the greatest 
consternation and terror, for the two brothers had mutually en- 
gaged to follow each other to the land of sjnrits, and if the Great 
Sun should kill himself for the sake of his brother very many 
people would likewise be put to death. 

The death of the Stung Serpent was published by the firing 
of two muskets, which was answered by the other villages, and 
immediatehy cries and lamentations were heard on all sides. The 
Great Sun in the meantime remained inconsolable, and sat bent 
forward with his eyes towards the ground. In the evening, while 
we were still in his hut, he made signs to his favorite wife, who, 
in consequence of that, threw a pailful of water on the fire, and 
extinguished it. This was the signal for extinguishing all the 
fires of the nation, and filled everyone with terrible alarms, as it 
denoted that the Great Sun was still resolved to put himself to 
death. I gently chided him for altering his former resolution,f but 
he answered me that he had not, and desired us to go and sleep 
securely. We accordingly left him, but we took up our lodging in 
the hut of his chief servant. 

Before we went to our lodgings we entered the hut of the de- 
ceased, and found him on his bed of state, dressed in his finest 
clothes, his face painted with vermilion, shod as if for a journey, 
with his feathered crown on his head. To his bed was fastened 
his arms, which consisted of a double-barreled gun, a pistol, a 
bow, a quiver full of arrows, and a tomahawk ; around his bed 
was placed all the calumets of peace he had received during his 

* In the accounts of persons buried in stone slabs, one end of the coffin is not 
closed with a slab. This may have been the outward end, so that the relatives 
of the dead might make offerings to them. 

f He had promised not to kill himself. 



CHAP. XX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



223 



life; and on a pole planted in the ground near it hung a chain 
of forty-six rings of cane, painted red, to express the number of 
enemies he had slain. All his domestics were around him, and 
they presented victuals to him at the usual hours, as if he were 
alive. The company in his hut was composed of his favorite 
wife, of a second wife, whom he kept in another village, of his 
chamberlain, of his physician, his chief domestic, his pipe-bearer, 
and some old women, who were to be strangled at his interment. 
To these victims a noble woman voluntarily joined herself, resolv- 
ing, from her friendship to the Stung Serpent, to go and live with 
him in the land of spirits. I regretted her on many accounts, but 
particularly as she was intimately acquainted with the virtues of 
simples, had by her skill saved the lives of many of our people, 
and given me many useful instructions. After we had satisfied our 
curiosity in the hut of the deceased we retired to our hut, where 
we spent the night. But at daybreak we were suddenly awaked 
and told that it was with difficulty the Great Sun was kept from 
killing himself. We hastened to his hut, and upon entering it I 
remarked terror and dismay painted upon the countenances of all 
who were present. I addressed myself to him, and chided him 
gently for his not acting according to his former resolution. At 
length he consented to order his fire to be again lighted, which 
was the signal for lighting the other fires of the nation, and dis- 
pelled all their apprehensions. 

Soon after the natives began the dance of deafh and prepared 
for the funeral of the Stung Serpent. Orders were given to put 
none to death on that occasion but those who were in the hut of 
the deceased. A child, however, had already been strangled by 
its father and mother, which ransomed their lives upon the death 
of the Great Sun, and raised them from the rank of Stinkards to 
that of Nobles. Those who were appointed to die were conducted 
twice a day and placed in two rows before the temple, where they 
acted over the scene of their death, each accompanied by eight of 
their own relations, who were to be their executioners, and by that 
office exempted themselves from dying upon the death of any of 
the Suns, and likewise raised them to the dignity of men of rank. 

On the day of the interment the master of the ceremonies ap- 
peared in a red-feathered crown which half encircled his head, 
having a red staff in his hand, in the form of a cross, at the end 
of which hung a garland of black feathers. All the upper part 
of his body was painted red, except his arms, and from his girdle 
to his knees hung a fringe of feathers, the rows of which were 
alternately white and red. When he came before the hut of the 



224 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXI. 

deceased he saluted him with a great hoo, and then began the cry 
of death, in which he was followed by the whole people. Imme- 
diately after the Stung Serpent was brought out on his bed of 
state, and was placed on a litter, which six of the guardians of the 
temple bore on their shoulders. The procession then began, the 
master of the ceremonies walking first, and. after him the oldest 
warrior, holding in one hand the pole with the rings of cane, and 
in the other the pipe of war, a mark of the dignity of the deceased. 
Next followed the corpse, after which came those who were to die 
at the interment. The whole procession went three times around 
the hut of the deceased, and then those who carried the corpse 
proceeded in a circular kind of march, every turn intersecting the 
former, until they came to the temple. At every turn the dead 
child was thrown by its parents before the bearers of the corpse, 
that they might walk over it; and when the corpse was placed in 
the temple the victims were immediately strangled. The Stung 
Serpent and his two wives were buried in the same grave within 
the temple; the other victims were interred in different parts; 
and after the ceremony they burnt, according to custom, the hut 
of the deceased. 



CHAPTER XXL 

Tumuli — Sultzertown Mound — Macon Mound. 

The largest and most remarkable mound in the Natchez district 
is that at Sultzertown (now, 1895, a mere name), twelve miles east- 
wardly of Natchez. 

Breckenridge, in the notes to his " Views of Louisiana,' ' has 
the following : " I have been favored by my friend, the Rev. Mr. 
Schemerhorn, with an account of a mound near Sultzertown, 
Mississippi Territory. At Sultzertown, M. T., six miles from 
Washington, is a very remarkable Inclian mound, and in every 
respect different from any I have seen in Ohio or Kentucky. It 
is not like those raised on a plain, or the river alluvium, but the 
land around it is very uneven or rolling, and from the gradual de- 
scent of the ground from its very base, we should be naturally led 
to conclude that here they had taken advantage of the natural po- 
sition. Instead of raising with much labor the huge pile of earth 
they have had little else to do than, by levelling, to form the mound 
agreeable to their designs. . 

Its form is a parallelogram whose sides bear the proportions to 



CHAP. XXI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



225 



each other of two to three, and, measured at the outside oftheditch, 
contains more than six acres. The first elevation is forty feet, the 
area of which may contain four acres. On the west side of the paral- 
lelogram, about the middle, is a circular mount whose diameter is 
fifty feet, and which measures from the hase (the ground) eighty- 
six feet. Opposite to it, on the east end, is a similar mount 
whose height is fifty feet, but appears to have been considerably 
higher. The north and south sides, which are the largest, have each 
three or four lesser elevations, but which are considerably washed 
down, the whole of the mound having been frequently plowed 
and many a valuable crop raised on it, but was originally, I sup- 
pose, at least ten feet above the first elevation. The whole, sur- 
rounded by a deep ditch which, particularly at the east and west 
sides, is still very perceptible. On the south and north sides are 
passages out and in.* 

That it was admirably calculated for a place of defence no one 
can doubt who considers its extent, its height, its ditch, particu- 
larly if palisadoed and military works were erected on the highest 
mounds or towers. If we suppose it to be dedicated to purposes of 
devotion, and the people to be worshippers of the heavenly bodies, 
the different heights of the mounds and their situation would lead 
us to conjecture that the highest was consecrated to the sun, the 
next to the moon, and the lesser ones to the stars ; but when we 
find that this has been the idolatry of some of the aborigines, is 
there not a foundation for the conjecture ? 

Human skeletons have been found in many of these mounds. 
Mr. Griffin, the owner of the Sultzer mounds, informed me that his 
sons, some few years since, had brought to him some of the bones 
of a human skeleton, particularly the head, and bones of the leg, 
which they discovered in this mound on one of the sides where 
the earth had been washed away. The skull, he observed, was 
uncommonly large, the bones of the leg and thigh much longer 
and larger than of common men, and that he supposed the skele- 
ton, which unfortunately was never taken up entirely, would have 
measured between six feet six inches and seven feet." 

It is worthy of remark that Du Pratz mentions that the Natchez 
deposited the remains of their Suns or chiefs in the parts of the 
temple where was kept the eternal fire. Might not this fact account 
for the finding of skeletons in some of them ? 

* Of all these "elevations" (mounds) on the summit of the main mound 
there remained, when I saw this tumulus, not many years ago, only the first, 
about the middle of the west side, and some vestiges of another. One of the two 
ascents or "passages" was still to be seen. It was formed as the "terrace'' 
which led to the top of the Cartersville mound. B. S. 

15 



226 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XXI. 



I see no reason why we may not suppose some of the largest 
of them to have been designed for all these purposes — burial, re- 
ligion, and defence. The altars of religion, however absurd may 
be the theology of some nations, superstition will render dear 
to them as their lives. If so, it was necessary in the early 
ages that such places should be secured and defended. It is not 
uncommon to read in history of nations who made their last stand 
against their enemies in their temples and around their altars. 

And again there is a principle in human nature to show re- 
spect for great and good men even after their death. This has 
been instanced in almost every nation. I shall only allude to the 
practice among the British of showing respect to departed great- 
ness and merit in placingtheir monuments in Westminster Abbey." 

The Rev. Mr. Mills also communicated to Mr. Breckenridge the 
following account of the Sultzertown mound : 

" At Sultzertown, near Washington, in the Mississippi territory, 
there is an ancient fortification. It is in the form of a parallelo- 
gram, including three or four acres measured at the base. The 
mound was raised forty-six feet above the common level of the 
ground ; near the middle of the west line was raised a large mound 
of circular form forty feet above the first level of the fortification, 
making the distance from the top of the mound eighty-six feet 
above the common level of the ground. 

The top of this mound had been plowed and somewhat worn 
down. It was six or eight paces across it. When the present pro- 
prietor took possession of his plantation, upon which the fortifica- 
tion stands, about twenty years ago, the country around was tim- 
bered and covered with Zimebrakes.* There was at that time no 
timber growing upon the fortification of more than a foot diame- 
ter. Opposite the high mound on the west line, was another mound on 
the east, but not so high, about fifty feet above the common level 
of the ground. 

In the middle of the north and south lines were the appear- 
ances of ways to ascend and descend the fortification; on each 
side of these apparent pass ways was a mound rising not more than 
ten feet above the fortification, but near fifty feet above the level of the 
ground around. There was remaining a part of the way round the 
base a ditch, in some places, at the time I saw it, nearly twenty 
feet deep. Human bones of a large size have been found near the 
mound." 

Ten or twelve years ago I visited this mound. It appeared to 
me only partly artificial, and that the makers of it had taken ad- 

* Probably "lime" brakes should be ccwiebrakes. 




The Tumult near Macon, Georgia. 



CHAP. XXI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



227 



vantage of the form of an elevation to shape it so as to make this 
mound. It is at the head of a ravine, and much higher on the 
side of the ravine than on the opposite side. It did not appear to 
me nearly as high as the two accounts make it. There was on the 
top of the great mound a mound about ten or twelve feet high, flat 
on the top, which was about twelve or fifteen feet in diameter (as 
well as I can remember and form an idea of it). This mound 
commanded the ascent to the top of the main mound, being situa- 
ted near its edge, where the roadway passed below it, or as the 
Mills account has it, "in the middle of the west line." Opposite 
this smaller mound, and near the edge of the main mound, was a 
shapeless mass of earth, which appeared to indicate that there 
had been some structure there. I have seen an account which 
mentioned that there were seven altars on the summit of this great 
mound. The shapeless heap, just mentioned, may have been one 
of the altars. The elevations of this great mound given in the two 
accounts above appear to me exaggerated. But tfs the accounts 
here given are probably the earliest, the work then was nearer its 
original state than at any time since, and great changes may have 
since been made by the removal of some and the deterioration of 
others of these works. The best description may be gathered from 
these two accounts. 

Large men and strong men have existed among all nations, 
Goliaths and Charlemagnes, Samsons and Herculeses. But there 
is no record of a nation of extraordinary large men. The mum- 
mies of Egypt at no period indicate the human size to have been 
greater than at present. 

In the " Antiquities of the Southern Indians," by Charles C. 
Jones, there is a description of the remarkable mound [17] on the 
left side of the Ockmulgee River, below and a little more than a 
mile from the city of Macon, from which the following is taken : 
" This mound, A, is located upon the summit of a natural hill, and 
occupies a commanding position. The earth of which it is com- 
posed was gathered in the valley and conveyed to the top of the 
hill, so as in the end to increase its elevation by some forty-five 
or fifty feet. The summit diameters of this tumulus, measured 
north and south, and east and west, are respectively one hundred 
and eighty and two hundred feet. On the west is an artificial 
plateau, still about eight feet high, seventy-two feet long, and 
ninety-three feet wide. On the north and east are three spurs or 
elevated approaches, over which, as paths, the laborers during the 
construction of the mound carried their burdens of sand and 
clay in cane baskets, and by means of which, when the tumulus 



228 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXI. 



was completed, ascent to its summit was rendered more facile. 
It is not improbable that this was a temple-mound, used by priests 
and devotees in their established worship of the Sun. 

One hundred feet north of this tumulus is a second mound, B, 
about forty feet high, elliptical in shape, with a summit diameter, 
measured in the direction of the major axis, of one hundred and 
twenty-eight feet. Northwest of this mound, and distant between 
three and four hundred yards, is the third of the group, C, its 
outlines marred by the elements, and its northern slope carried 
away by the excavations for the new track of the Central Railway. 
It is still about forty feet high, and is conical in form — its mean 
summit diameter being about eighty-two feet. On its top is the 
decayed stump of a tree more than five feet thick. 

About four hundred yards in a northeasterly direction from 
this mound is the last tumulus of the series, D. In general charac- 
teristics it closely resembles the mound last mentioned. These 
mounds are all flat on their summits, and may be described as 
truncated cones, with the exception of the temple-mound, which 
assimilates the form of an octagonal truncated pyramid. The 
temple-mound was erected for religious purposes ; the others were 
heaped up, probably in honor of the dead. Upon the acclivity east 
of the central mound are manifest remains of an aboriginal settle- 
ment. Here, in excavating for the new track of the Central Rail- 
way, the workmen a short time since unearthed, a few feet below 
the surface, several skeletons, in connection with which were found 
beads of shell and porcelain, a part of a discoid stone, several 
arrow and spear-points, two stone celts, a clay pipe, an earthen 
pot and other matters of a primitive character, fashioned for use 
or ornament. 

This excavation for the line of the railway necessitated the 
removal of a considerable portion of the northern side of the 
central mound. In the conduct of this work the laborers, while 
cutting through the slope of the mound, and at the depth, per- 
haps, of three feet below the superior surface, exhumed several 
skulls, regular in outline and possessing the ordinary character- 
istics of American crania. Associated with these skeletons were 
stone implements — the handiwork of the red race— Venetian 
beads and copper hawk-belts acquired through commercial inter- 
course with the early traders and voyagers. The fact was patent 
that at least some of these inhumations had occurred subsequent 
to the period of primal contact between the European and the 
Indian. 

Passing below these interments — which were evidently second- 



CHAP. XXI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



229 



ary in their character — and arriving at the hottom of the mound, 
a skull was obtained which differed most essentially from those 
we have described as belonging to a later inhumation. It was 
vastly older than those of the secondary interments, and had 
been artificially distorted to such an extent that the cerebellum 
was quite obliterated, while the front portion of the skull had not 
only been flattened, but irregularly compressed so as to cause an 
undue elevation and divergence to the left. 

Among the relics found in the vicinity of this artificially-com- 
pressed skull was a total absence of European ornaments. Here 
we have an interesting demonstration of the fact that these an- 
cient tumuli were in turn used by tribes who, perhaps, had no 
knowledge the one of the other. The flattened and distorted 
skull belongs to the mound-building people, to whose industry 
the erection of these tumuli is to be referred. It was in perpetu- 
ation and in honor of such primal sepulture that this mound was 
heaped up. In the course of time these sepulchral and temple- 
structures, abandoned of their owners, passed into the hands of 
other and later red races, who buried their dead upon the interior 
surface and along the slopes of these ancient tumuli, having at 
the time, perchance, no personal acquaintance with, and fre- 
quently not even a distinct tradition of, the people to whose ex- 
ertions these evidences of early constructive skill were attribut- 
able. 

The very generations of the dead 

Are swept away, and tomb inherits tomb, 
Until the memory of an age is fled, 

And buried, sinks beneath the offspring's doom. — Byron. 

Who these flat-head mound-builders were is matter for conjec- 
ture. It may be that they were a colony of the Natchez, journey- 
ing hither from their old habitance on the banks of the Mississippi. 

Below these mounds, in the valley-lands of the Ockmulgee, 
upon Lamar's plantation, are several large tumuli. The presence 
of these mounds and the numerous relics scattered through the 
length and breadth of the valley for miles, afford ample testimon} r 
that this rich alluvial soil was once the seat of a numerous and, 
perhaps, permanent population." 

My first view of this temple mound was in the fall of 1881. A 
few years since I had curiosity to visit it again, and, from my ob- 
servations made at these visits, I formed the idea that this mound 
was not wholly artificial. It is on a point of the highland pro- 
jecting into the lowlands of the Ockmulgee river, and was probably 
a prominent elevation of which the builder took advantage for 



230 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XXI. 



the formation of this mound by excavating the ground on two 
sides — the north and west — and heaping it on the summit of the 
elevation. Earth could not be taken from the other two sides, on 
account of the declivity of the highland on those two sides. 

I observed no indication of terraces, no inclined plane or ramp 
for ascending to the top of the mound. But I believe that this 
mound was terraced and that the ascent was made by steps or an 
inclined plane leading from the base of one terrace to the next, as 
described in the account of the teocalli of Mexico. Time and the 
elements have obliterated in this mound, as it has probably in 
many others, the angles, terraces, platforms and altars that origi- 
nally were distinct in these structures. 

This mound had been occupied by troops in the late war, and 
an entrenchment had been made on its summit, so as to embrace 
all the area of the summit, the earth from the ditch being heaped 
on the edge of the declivity of the mound, thus forming a breast- 
work. The water accumulated in this ditch had burst its barrier, 
flowed down the south side of the mound, and made a consider- 
able ravine. 

The top of this mound, as the top of that at Sultzertown, had 
been cultivated, and it is also probable that this cultivation has 
not only reduced the elevation, but has also destroyed every struc- 
ture that may have originally been raised on its summit. The 
mound on the edge of the railroad excavation is, as the temple 
mound, denuded of trees and quite bare. 

The Choctaws and the Caribbs flatten the head, and I heard 
many years ago that a human skull flattened in a manner similar 
to the flattened skull found in the middle mound of the Macon 
group was discovered in the Sultzertown mound. There were and 
still are Indians who flatten the heads of their children when in- 
fants. James G. Swan, in his book entitled " The North West 
Coast; or, Three Years' Residence in Washington Territory," has 
the following, in speaking of some of the coast tribes of Indians 
between the Columbia River and Fuca Straits : " The most singular 
custom among these Indians is that of flattening or compressing 
the head of the infant. Where this custom originated is hard to 
tell. Lewis and Clark state that it is not peculiar to that part of 
the continent. But wherever it began, or what was its origin, the 
practice is now universal among the tribes west of the Rock}^ 
Mountains, in the region of Columbia, and it is confined to them, 
for, with the exception of the Snake Indians, who are called Flat 
Heads, the fashion is not known to the east of that barrier. 

This pressure on the forehead causes the head to expand lat- 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



231 



erally, giving an expression of great broadness to the face ; but I 
never perceived that it affected the mind at all, although it dis- 
figures them very much in appearance. I have seen several whose 
heads have not been thus pressed, and they were smart, intelligent, 
and quite good-looking, but they were laughed at by the others, 
who asserted that their mothers were too lazy to shape their heads 
properly. But although I have seen persons with and others 
without this deformity, I never could discover any superiority of 
intellect of one over the other." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Tumuli — Views of a Member of the First Congress — The Works on Little 
River, Georgia — Bartram's Description of them, of Cullsate, of Sticoe, of 
Keowse — Ancient Tombs and Fortifications on the River Huron, or Bald 
Eagle — Ancient Works near Newark, Ohio — Ancient Fortifications at 
Marietta — The Ancient Works at Grave Creek, Virginia — Schoolcraft's Visit 
to them. 

The following is from a work entitled " Voyage dans La Haute 
Pennsylvanie," published at Paris in the year 1801 : 

" I have the following details relative to artificial mounds and 
arenas which are seen in Georgia and the two Floridas, of Mr. 
B , elected member of Congress at the birth of the new Govern- 
ment, and for four years since Senator of the United States.* 

We know by the tradition of the Cherokees that at the period 
of the arrival of their ancestors from the mountains of Mexico 
these great works were very nearly the same as we see them now, 
and that the most ancient among the Savannucasf were ignorant 
when and by whom they had been raised. This invasion took 
place about the end of the fifteenth century. If we suppose that, 
among a nation of hunters, three hundred years were sufficient 
to efface the last souvenirs of tradition, then the existence of these 
monuments ascends to the twelfth century. How much it is to 
be regretted that these feeble lights are extinct ! What could be 
the cause of this absolute silence? Does it come from the high 
antiquity of these works, or from the stupid ignorance of our abo- 
rigines ? Was this ancient people aboriginal ? How many cen- 
turies has it existed as a nation before having been able to raise 
these pyramids and dig these arenas? For what use were they 

* Probably Mr. Baldwin, of Georgia. 

f The name of the ancient natives of Georgia and the mountains of Tennessee. 



232 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 

destined ? What is the degree of civilization to which men can 
arrive without the knowledge of the use of iron ? What were the 
religious opinions to which these pyramids were adapted ? What 
has been the fate of these ancient nations ? Could they have been 
destroyed by some great catastrophe of nature? That is not pro- 
bable, since the works, entirely constructed of earth, still exist. 
Could they have been exterminated by barbarians from the inte- 
rior of the continent? If so, how conceive that a numerous peo- 
ple, capable of raising so imposing and massive ones, could be en- 
tirely destroyed, and that the lights and knowledge that they had 
acquired have perished with it, wuthout those who would have 
escaped having carried elsewhere its lights and its knowledge, or, 
finally, wuthout the conquerors having preserved some sparks of it? 

Is the period of its existence posterior, or is it anterior to that 
of this ancient people w r hich raised on the borders of the Ohio 
and elsewhere entrenched camps which have been discovered for 
many years ? After an attentive examination of these works 
alike made of earth, and in which, as well as in the first, there is 
not found any indication of iron nor of any dressed stone, we can 
believe them cotemporary. If w 7 e conceive that a pacific people 
such as that which inhabited this State and the tw^o Floridas have 
been destroyed by barbarous nations, to what cause shall w T e at- 
tribute the entire disappearance of the warlike nations of the Ohio, 
which could raise ramparts so formidable and choose positions so 
military ? If these w T orks date from the same epoch (which ap- 
pears very probable), the same unknown cause would have de- 
stroyed at the same time the warlike people and the pacific na- 
tion, although separated by a distance of more than two hundred 
leagues. 

Like to the pyramids of Egypt, these traces of the existence, 
of the industry, and of the civilization of these ancient peoples, 
are no more than useless and mute witnesses, whose relation with 
the ancient state and things of this part of the world are enveloped 
and lost in the vague darkness of the past. However, although 
these entrenched camps, these works, are but as imperceptible 
points, hillocks, compared with the grandeur of those rivals, of 
ages raised on the borders of the Nile, they present to the view 
of the observer what America contains of the most ancient and 
most extraordinary and of the most worthy to be attentively 
examined. 

But, finally, since we cannot form conjectures more probable, we 
must therefore believe that these industrious and peaceable nations 
must have been exterminated by some barbarous hordes from the 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



233 



interior of the country, who, in the course of ages, must have been 
destroyed by other tribes not less ferocious, these latter by the 
Cherokees driven from the mountains of Mexico, and finally these 
last by the men from Europe. Such has been the fate of nearly 
all nations. All have undergone nearly the same vicissitudes, all 
have had to struggle or have been the sport and the victims of the 
caprice of that formidable power, unknown, which we call destiny, 
fatality, or chance. 

Twenty miles from Wrightsburg, not far from the borders of 
Little River, are seen, in the midst of a fertile plain, many arti- 
ficial hillocks whose bases are from seven hundred to eight hun- 
dred feet in circumference, and from thirty to forty feet in height ; 
a pyramid whose dimensions are more considerable : four terraces 
of a square form, having from ten to twelve feet of elevation ; and, 
finally, an arena dug, with four ranges of banquettes, which, as 
far as I could judge of them, could contain three thousand spec- 
tators; and further still the evident marks of trenches and of 
ancient cultivation, in which enormous oaks grow ; I measured 
some of them that were four feet seven inches in diameter. The 
pyramid alone, whose height might be fifty-five feet, must have 
required the labor of some thousands of men during several years ; 
as to its form, thanks to the thick bushes, as well as to the roots 
of the trees which covered it, it still exists almost entire. 

Farther to the west, on the borders of a great natural prairie, 
one sees works much like these last, but whose dimensions are 
smaller, or which have been more deteriorated by the rapacity 
of time. 

At some distance from the borders of the Ockmulgee, whose 
union with the Oconee forms the Altamaha, are also to be seen 
the evident traces of the long and persevering industry of an 
ancient people, such as some remains of terraces, arenas, mounds, 
and pyramidal elevations, near which are found fragments of pot- 
tery of a kind much more improved than those of which our 
natives make use. 

The most important work, and the most worthy to excite cu- 
riosity, is in the neighborhood of Fort Dartmouth, on the borders 
of the Keowee (eastern branch of the Savannah), one hundred 
miles above the town of Augusta.* The first object which strikes 
the eye of the traveller is a circular pyramid whose base is one 
thousand feet, or about, in circumference, whose height is seventy 

* ''Capital of Georgia, built on a beautiful plain at the extremity of the 
maritime navigation of the Savannah River, at one hundred leagues from the 
sea, on the route that leads to the Creek nations and to the Mississippi." 



234 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



feet, as well as I could judge of it without the assistance of instru- 
ments, and whose summit is crowned with cedars. It is ascended 
by a spiral path, on which, at different elevations, and facing the 
four cardinal points, are four niches. From the top of this pyra- 
mid are discovered many other elevations less important. Some 
are square, others in the form of parallelograms ; some are two 
hundred feet in length and from five to twelve feet in height. But 
what is still more astonishing is a causeway of more than three 
miles in length, which the water of the river never overflows, 
although it washes the base of the pyramid in the frequent inun- 
dations." 

I will here interrupt this Congressman's narration to insert an 
interesting description of the same works by William Bartram, 
the Philadelphia botanist. 

The following is William Bartram 's account of his visit to these 
monuments, in April or May, 1776 : " Towards evening I crossed 
Broad River at a good ford, just above its confluence with the 
Savannah, and arrived at Fort James, which is a fine square stock- 
ade with salient bastions at each angle, mounted with a block- 
house, where are some swivel-guns, one story higher than the cur- 
tains, which are pierced with loop-holes breast-high, and defended 
by srnall-arms. The fortification encloses about an acre of ground, 
wherein is the governor's or commandant's house, a good building, 
which is flanked on each side by buildings for the officers and 
barracks for the garrison, consisting of fifty rangers, including 
officers, each having a good horse well equipped, a rifle, two dra- 
goon-pistols, and a hanger, besides a powder-horn, shot-pouch and 
tomahawk. The fort stands on an eminence in the forks between 
the Savannah and the Broad Rivers, about one mile above Fort 
Charlotta, which is situated near the banks of the Savannah, on 
the Carolina side. Fort James is situated nearly at equal dis- 
tances from the banks of the two rivers, and from the extreme 
point of the land that separates them. The point or peninsula 
between the two rivers, for the distance of two miles back from 
the fort, is laid out for a town, named Dartmouth. 

I made a little excursion up the Savannah River, four or five 
miles above the fort, with the surgeon of the garrison, who was 
so polite as to attend me, to show me some remarkable Indian 
monuments, which are worthy of every traveller's notice. These 
wonderful labors of the ancients stand in a level plain very near 
the bank of the river, now twenty or thirty yards from it. They 
consist of conical mounts of earth and four square terraces, etc. 
The great mount is in the form of a cone, about forty or fifty feet 



CHAP. XXII.] OF AMERICA. 235 

high, and the circumference of its base two' %r three hundred 
yards, entirely composed of the loamy rich earth of the low grounds. 
The top, or apex, is flat ; a spiral path or track leading from the 
ground up to the top, is still visible. There appear four niches 
excavated out of the sides of this hill, at different heights from 
the base, fronting the four cardinal points ; these niches are en- 
tered from the winding path. 

It is altogether unknown to us what could have induced the 
Indians to raise such a heap of earth in this place, the ground 
for a great space around being subject to inundation at least once 
a year. It is reasonable to suppose, however, that they were to 
serve for some important purpose in those days, as they are public 
works, and would have required the united labor and attention of 
a whole nation, circumstanced as they were, to have constructed 
one of them almost in an age. There are several less ones round 
about the great one, with some very large tetragon terraces on 
each side, nearly one hundred yards in length, and their surface 
four, six, eight, and ten feet above the ground on which they 
stand. 

We may, however, hazard a conjecture that, as there is generally 
a narrow space or ridge in these lowlands immediately bordering 
on the river's bank, which is eight or ten feet higher than the ad- 
joining low grounds that lie betwixt the stream and the heights 
of the adjacent mainland, which, when the river overflows its 
banks, are many feet under water, when, at the same time, this 
ridge on the river bank is above water and dry, and at such in- 
undations appears as an island in the river, these people might 
have had a town on this ridge, and this mound raised for a retreat 
and refuge in case of inundations."* 

Returning to the Congressman, he continues : " Six miles fur- 
ther we enter into another valley, as beautiful and as cool, known 
under the name of Cullsate, in the middle of which are seen great 
and long terraces, and two pyramids from thirty to thirty-five 
feet in height. This valley is not exposed to the inundation of 
the Keowee. 

Farther still, in the mountains, not far from the site of the 
ancient town of Sticoe, is seen another pyramid, whose circumfer- 
ence is eight hundred feet, and the height forty-eight, with very con- 
siderable terraces. The same objects are found at Co wee, capital of 
one of the most beautiful and most fertile valleys of Tennessee, as 
well as many conical tombs. An old Cherokee chief told me that 



* This ' ' ridge on the river bank " was probably a levee 



! — dike. 



236 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



at the time of the*invasion of his ancestors these tombs and these 
artificial mounds existed in very nearly the same condition. 

At some miles from Fort Prince George of Keowee are also seen 
many conical elevations, which are believed to be tombs, and four 
artificial hillocks covered with trees and bushes. At Watoga, a 
very considerable Cherokee town, there is a pyramid whose height 
the inhabitants have reduced twenty feet, on which they have 
erected their rotunda, or place of council. The old Oweekamwee 
repeated to me what I had heard at Cowee relative to the traditions 
of the ancient Savannucas. 

Not far from the town of Keowee they have lately discovered 
some other ancient works, the only ones that bore the imprint of 
the hammer. They are composed of four stones, six feet long 
and three feet wide ; two of these stones are placed edgewise, in a 
parallel direction, a third covers them, and the fourth closes one 
of the extremities. 

They have long ago discovered in the two Floridas monuments 
like to the first, also causeways which appear to have been raised 
to form ponds, some roads running straight and perfectly level, 
which led to the neighboring savannas ; some fragments of vases 
and of elegant pottery. The most important of these works are 
situated near Lake George, on the river St. John, also at Tensas, 
on the Mobile, at Otassee, at Ufala, Talassee, Muclassee, on the 
Talapoosa, or Oakfuska, at Kiolege, on the Coosa, at Uche, on the 
Apalachuela, etc. 

Is it not surprising that the natives consider with the greatest 
indifference these ancient and respectable evidences of the long 
sojourn, and of the industry of nations which have preceded 
them, and which in remote times inhabited and cultivated this 
beautiful part of the continent? It is the same with the whites, 
who traded with or resided among them. A young man, a good 
geometer and tolerable delineator, undertook to draw the plans, 
and to sketch views of them ; but unfortunately several Seminole 
hunters, having met him, took him for some one who came 
secretly to survey their lands (which in their eyes is an unpardon- 
able crime), and were going to kill him, when he had the pres- 
ence of mind to show them his designs. They led him to the 
Myco of the village, who released him ; but through condescension 
for these hunters he cast into the fire his designs and plans and 
forbade him to appear among them with any instrument." 

Details of ancient fortifications situated on the river Huron or 
Bald Eagle, which flows into Lake Erie, sent to General Washing- 
ton, the 29th of June, 1789, by A. Steiner [18]. 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



237 



" The first of these fortifications, No. 1, is situated at two hundred 
and twenty toises from the eastern bank of this river, at eight miles 
above its mouth, in this lake. It is a plateau, A, of three hundred 
feet in diameter, and of an ordinary elevation, surrounded by a 
circular platform from three feet and a half to five feet in height, 
and from seven to eight in thickness. Twenty-four feet beyond 
this first rampart there is seen another, B, having the same height 
and the same thickness, but which is a semicircle. In the same 
manner as the first it is surrounded with a ditch from four to six 
feet in width, still filled with water. There is upon this esplanade 
neither stones nor any vestiges of ancient edifices. The entrance, 
C, is not defended by any advanced work. Towards the north- 
east are seen thirty-four tombs, D, from sixty to seventy feet in 
circumference, and from three to four feet in height, the forms of 
which are partly circular and elliptical. The first are but five 
feet from the ditch ; there are four others, D, towards the north- 
west, whose dimensions are the same. 

Two miles lower, on the borders of the declivity, E, of the little 
stream that flows into the Huron, there is seen a mound, No. 2, 
surrounded by a double platform and ditches, which begin and 
terminate on the same declivity. The only difference is that in- 
stead of one entrance, this little entrenched camp has three, G. 
Towards the south there is another plateau, H, likewise accom- 
panied with its ditch, but the form of which is not a perfect circle, 
and which appears to have been raised only to cover the two prin- 
cipal entrances. Not far from the most southern are two eleva- 
tions of earth, K, I, which touch the wall or platform. The first, 
which is circular, is fifty feet in diameter, and only two and a half 
in height ; the second is a square of the same height, and seventy 
feet each side. The tombs which are in the vicinity of this en- 
trenched camp are not numerous ; some others are seen more 
distant in the same direction. 

These ancient fortifications are covered with bushes and with 
trees whose trunks are from eighteen to twenty inches in diameter. 
On the summit of one of these tombs I observed a dead oak that 
was thirty inches in diameter. The earth in this county is a clay, 
on which there is a very thin layer of vegetable soil. The forests 
consist of white and red oaks, beech and linden trees. The na- 
tives, who are a mixture of Chippevvays, Delawares and Wyan- 
dots, told me that according to tradition these military works 
had been raised by men much larger and stronger than they, 
That then all the nations were in a state of continual war, that 



238 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



their hunters had discovered many other fortifications, some like 
to these, and others more considerable; and that these ancient 
natives made use of the scapula of the stag and the elk as we 
make use of the iron shovel." 

The following description of the earthworks at Newark, Ohio, is 
from " Antiquities of the West," by Caleb Atwater : 

" Between the two branches of Licking river, Raccoon creek and 
South fork, near Newark, in the State of Ohio, are ancient earth- 
works, which on many accounts are quite as remarkable as any 
others in North America, or perhaps in any part of the world. 

By reference to the scale on which they are projected, it will be 
seen that these works are of great extent [19]. 

A is a fort containing about forty acres, with its walls, which 
are generally, I should judge, about ten feet high. Leading into 
this fort are eight openings or gateways, about fifteen feet in width, 
in front of which is a small mound of earth, in height and thick- 
ness resembling the outer wall (see m). These small mounds are 
about four feet longer than the gateway is in width ; otherwise they 
look as if the Avail had been moved into the fort eight or ten feet. 
These small mounds of earth were probably intended for the de- 
fence of the gates opposite to which they are situated. The walls 
of this work consist of earth taken from the surface so carefully 
and uniformly that it cannot now be discovered from what point* 
They are as nearly perpendicular as the earth could be made 
to lie. 

B is a round fort, consisting of twenty-two acres, connected with 
A by two parallel walls of earth of about the same height, etc., as 
those of A. At d is an observatory, built partly of earth and partly 
of stone. It commanded a full view of a considerable part, if not 
all the plain in which these ancient works stand, and would do. so 
now, were the thick growth of ancient forest trees, which clothe 
this tract, cleared away. Under this observatory was a passage, 
from appearances, and a secret one probably, to the water-course, 
which once ran near this spot, but has since moved farther off. 

C is a circular fort, containing about twenty-six acres, having a 
wall around it, which was thrown out of a deep ditch on the inner 
side of the wall. This wall is now from twenty-five to thirty feet in 
height ; and when I saw this work, the ditch was half-filled with 
water, especially on the side towards E. There are parallel walls 
of earth c, generally five or six rods apart, and four or five feet in 
height. 

* They may have been made of the earth removed to make the pond. 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



239 



D is a square fort containing twenty acres, whose walls are simi- 
lar to those of A. 

E is a pond, covering from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
acres, which was a few years since entirely dry, so that a crop of 
Indian corn was raised where the water is now ten feet in depth and 
appears still to be rising. This pond sometimes reaches to the 
very walls of C and to the parallel walls towards its northern end. 

F is the interval, or alluvion made by the Raccoon and South 
fork of Licking river, since they washed the foot of the hill at G. 
When these works were occupied, we have reason to believe that 
these streams washed the foot of this hill, and as one proof of it, 
passages down to the water have been made of easy ascent and 
descent at b. 

G, an ancient bank of the creeks which have w T orn their chan- 
nels considerably deeper than they were when they washed the 
foot of this hill. These works stand on a large plain, which was 
elevated forty or fifty feet above the interval F, and is almost per- 
fectly flat, and as rich a piece of land as can be found in any 
country. The reader w T ill see the passes where the authors of these 
works entered into their fields at IIIII, and which were probably 
cultivated.* The watch-towers, a, were placed at the ends of the 
parallel walls, on ground as elevated as could be found on this ex- 
tended plain. They are surrounded by circular w T alls, now only 
four or five feet in height. It is easy to see the utility of these 
works placed at the several places where they stand. 

C, D, two parallel walls, leading probably to other w T orks, but 
not having been traced more than a mile or two, are not laid down 
even as far as they were surveyed. 

The high ground near New r ark appears to have been the place, 
and the only one which I saw, where the ancient occupants of these 
works buried their dead, and even these tumuli appeared to me to 
be small. Unless others are found in the vicinity, I should con- 
clude that the original owners, though very numerous, did not re- 
side here any great length of time. I should not be surprised if 
the parallel walls C, D, are found to extend from one w r ork of de- 
fence to another, for the space of thirty miles, all the way across 
to the Hockhocking, or some point a few miles north of Lancaster. 

Such walls having been discovered in different places, probably 
belonging to these works, for ten or twelve miles at least, leads me 
to suspect that the works on the Licking were erected by people 
who were connected with those who lived on the Hockhocking 

* These " passes " do not appear, unless they were at the ends of the parallel 
walls, next A and C. 



240 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



river, and that their road between the two settlements was between 
these two walls.* 

The hearths, burnt charcoal, cinders, wood, ashes, etc., which 
were uniformly found in all similar places that are now cultivated, 
have not been discovered here, this plain being probably an un- 
cultivated forest. I found here several arrow-heads, such as evi- 
dently belonged to the people who raised other similar works. 

A few miles below Newark, on the south side of the Licking, 
are some of the most extraordinary holes dug in the earth, for 
number and depth, of any within my knowledge, which belonged 
to the people we are treating of. In popular language they are 
called 1 wells,' but were not dug for the purpose of procuring 
water, either fresh or salt. There are at least a thousand of these 
wells. Many of them are more than twenty feet in depth. "f 

Report of John Hart, Captain in the First Regiment (of the 
United States), relative to the ancient fortifications discovered on 
the borders of the Muskingum, at a half a mile from the conflu- 
ence of this river with the Ohio [20]. 

" For more clearness, I shall call the town No. 1, fortifications, 
No. 2, and pyramid, No. 3. The town is a square of two hundred 
and twenty toises, surrounded by a platform which is from six to 
ten feet in height and from twenty to forty in width. Three open- 
ings divide this platform into four nearly equal parts. Those 
which faced the river appeared to me to be a little larger. Noth- 
ing covered the four angles of this town ; one of the openings of 
the west side served for the issue of a road, M, one hundred and 
twenty feet wide, which led to the lowlands of the riverj by a gen- 
tle slope of sixty toises. This road is closed on two sides by a 
platform, O, which begins sixty feet from that of the town and 
rises in proportion as this passage descends, in such a manner as 
to preserve its level. The way of this road appears to have been 
made so as to decline on each side, and be accompanied by two 
drains, which perhaps served for the flowing off of the waters of 
the town. 

Towards the northwest angle of this same town is seen an ele- 

* If the people who made these walls lived when mastodons roamed through 
these regions they might have been of some use to protect travellers going from 
one settlement to another from these monsters, but I much doubt whether similar 
roads were ever constructed in any country, unless the great wall of China be 
considered as such. 

f "Description of the Antiquities discovered in the State of Ohio and other 
Western States." By Caleb Atwater. 

% Benjamin Franklin says the river has receded three hundred feet since this 
work was made. 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



241 



vation, B, of an oblong form, which is thirty-seven toises long, 
twenty-two wide, and six feet high ; its surface is perfectly even. 
Four ramps or inclined plains, I, placed at the centre of the four 
sides, lead to it ; they appear to correspond exactly to the openings 
of the platforms or walls of the town. 

Not far from this wall, toward the northeast, is seen another 
elevation, G, twenty-five by twenty toises ; but instead of four ramps 
it has but three — I, I, I. The place of the fourth, R, appears to 
have been hollowed. A little more to the north is another ele- 
vation, circular, L, accompanied by four small excavations, K, 
placed at equal distances. Towards the southeast part is seen an- 
other, H, the form of which is a parallelogram, and which is nine 
toises wide and eighteen long ; it is much more deteriorated than 
the others. The most southern angle of the town is covered by a 
very peculiar Avork : it is a mound quite elevated, N, accompanied 
by two parapets, X, semi-circular. It is probable that the three 
other angles of the town were defended by some works like to this, 
which time may have destroyed. 

The fortifications, No. 2, formed a whole nearly square, which, 
as the town, is surrounded by platforms whose openings are de- 
fended by mounds, S. Those of the openings, T, T, are double. 
Between these fortifications and the town are seen excavations, 
some circular elevations, Z, and some tombs, W. No. 3, the pyra- 
mid, B, is nearly circular ; it is fifty feet in height, and three hun- 
dred and ninety in circumference ; it is surrounded by a ditch 
five feet deep by fifteen wide, as also by an exterior parapet, A, 
which is seven hundred and fifty-nine in circuit. This enclosure 
has but one opening, R, and is preceded on the side of the Ohio 
by some advanced works, C, D. 

There have been discovered many other mounds, excavations and 
platforms covered with bushes and trees whose ensemble escaped 
my view ; it is what decided me not to trace them on the plan. 

The trees which cover these ancient works are oaks from two to 
four feet in diameter, hickories, sugar-maples, ash, sycamore, 
acacias, plane-trees, pines, etc. The vegetable soil on which they 
grow appears to be as deep as that of the vicinity. The tombs are 
small elevations in which are found human bones. It appears 
that the bodies had been inhumed with much care and placed in 
the direction from east to west. There have been found in the 
breasts of some of them pieces of talc. The bones of some others 
have been calcined, or dried, to prolong their duration. There 
have also been discovered stones which bore the imprint of fire, 
us well as charcoal, arrows, and fragments of potter v. 

16 



242 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



Moreover they have not found iron nor anything that could 
cause a conjecture that these ancient people had known this metal. 
The uniformity, the regularity of these ramparts, their advanta- 
geous situation, their height, the largeness of these platforms, all at- 
test that they have been raised by a nation numerous, powerful and 
considerably advanced in civilization. Dr. Cutler, a celebrated 
botanist, who has carefully examined the oaks fallen through old 
age, as well as those which are still in all their vigor, believes that 
these last ones are a second generation, which carries the time of 
the construction of these fortifications, perhaps, to a thousand 
years. 

Judge of my surprise when on landing for the first time in the 
midst of these ancient and venerable forests the view of these pro- 
digious works announced to me that at a ver}^ remote period these 
places, now so solitary, had been animated by the presence and 
the labors of a people numerous, industrious and warlike. The 
regularity of these fortifications, the enormous quantity of earth 
with which these ramparts and this pyramid have been formed, 
all these objects, although very striking, astonished me, however, 
much less than the entire disappearance of this ancient people 
and the silence of tradition. 

It is probable that this part of the continent has been greatly 
populated, for. if the extent of these entrenchments are propor- 
tioned to the number of those who defended them, it was also to 
^hat of the assailants. If ever they have been attacked. I do not 
believe that the number of the besieged and the besiegers could 
have been less than ten thousand ; and if one in ten were then 
soldiers, the circumjacent countries ought then to contain one hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants." 

In the " Description of the Antiquities of the State of Ohio and 
other Western States," by Caleb Atwater, are accounts of the 
earthworks at Marietta, from which the following is taken : 

" It will be seen that I have quoted largely from Drs. Cutler 
and Harris, not, however, without first ascertaining that their ac- 
counts were perfectly correct as to all the facts which they have 
stated. 

The largest square, called the town, contains forty acres, en- 
compassed by a wall of earth from six to ten feet high, and from 
twenty-five to thirty feet in breadth at the base. 

On each side are three openings at equal distances. The en- 
trances at the middle are the largest, particularly on the side next 
to the Muskingum. From this outlet is a covertway formed of two 
parallel walls of earth two hundred and thirty-one feet distant 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



243 



from each other, measuring from centre to centre. The walls at 
the most elevated part on the inside are twenty-one feet high and 
forty-two broad at the base, but on the outside average only five 
feet in height. This forms a passage of about three hundred and 
sixty feet in length, leading by a gradual descent to the low 
grounds, where, at the base of its construction, it probably reached 
the river. Its walls commence sixty feet from the ramparts of 
the fort and increase in elevation as the way descends towards the 
river ; the bottom is crowned in the centre, in the manner of a 
well-founded turnpike road. 

At the northwest corner of the fort is an oblong, elevated square, 
one hundred and eighty-eight feet long, one hundred and thirty- 
two feet broad, and nine feet high, level on the summit and nearly 
perpendicular on the sides. At the centre of each of the sides a 
ramp of earth about six feet wide gradually ascends to the top. 

Near the south wall is another elevated square one hundred and 
fifty feet by one hundred and twenty, and eight feet high, similar 
to the others, except that on the side next to the wall instead of a 
ramp there is a hollow way ten feet wide, leading twenty feet to- 
wards the centre, and then rising with a gentle slope to the top. 

At the southeast corner is a third elevated square one hundred 
and eight by fifty-four feet, with ascents at the ends, but not so 
high nor so perfect as the others. 

A little to the southwest of the centre of the fort is a circular 
mound about thirty feet in diameter and five feet high, near which 
are four small excavations at equal distances, and opposite each 
other. 

At the southwest corner of the fort is a semicircular parapet 
crowned with a mound, which guards the opening in the wall. 

Towards the southeast is a small fort containing twenty acres, 
with a gateway in the centre of each side and at each corner. 
These gateways are defended by circular mounds. On the out- 
side of this smaller fort is a mound in form of a sugar-loaf; its 
base, a regular circle, is one hundred and fifteen feet in diameter; 
perpendicular height, thirty feet. It is surrounded by a ditch 
four feet deep and fifteen feet wide, and defended by a parapet 
four feet high, through which is a gateway towards the fort twenty 
feet wide." 

Some additional particulars by Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta, 
date of June 8th, 1819: 

"The principal excavation, or well, is as much as sixty feet in 
diameter at the surface, and when the settlement was first made it 
was at least twenty feet deep. It is, at present, twelve or fourteen 



244 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



feet. It was originally of the kind formed in the most early days, 
when the water was brought up by hand in pitchers or other 
vessels, by steps formed in the sides of the well. 

The pond, or reservoir, near the northwest corner of the large 
fort was about twenty-five feet diameter, and the sides raised above 
the level of the adjoining surface by an embankment of earth 
three or four feet high. It was nearly full at the first settlement 
of the town, and remained so until the last winter, at all seasons 
of the year. When the ground was cleared near the well a great 
many logs were rolled into it. These, with the annual deposit of 
leaves for ages, had filled the well nearly full, but still the water 
rose to the surface. Poles have been pushed down into the water 
and deposit of rotten vegetation to the depth of thirty feet. Last 
winter the person who owns the well undertook to drain it by cut- 
ting a ditch from the well into the small ' covertway,' and he has 
dug to the depth of about twelve feet and let the water off to that 
distance. He finds the sides of the reservoir project gradually 
towards the centre of the well in the form of an inverted cone. 
The bottom and sides, so far as he has examined them, are lined 
with a stratum of very fine ash-colored clay, about eight or ten 
inches in thickness, below which is the common soil of the place. 

On the outside of the parapet, near the oblong square, I picked 
up a considerable number of fragments of ancient potter's ware. 
This ware is ornamented with lines, some of them quite curious 
and ingenious, on the outside. It is composed of clay and fine 
gravel and has a partial glazing on the inside. It seems to have 
been burnt. The fragments, on breaking them, look quite black, 
with brilliant particles appearing as you held them to the light. 
The ware which I have seen, found near the river, is composed of 
shells and clay, and not nearly so hard as that found on the plain. 
Several pieces of copper have been found in and near to the ancient 
works, at various times. One piece, from the description I had of 
it, was in the form of a cup with low sides,' the bottom very thick 
and strong. 

The places of ascent on the sides of the elevated squares are ten 
feet wide, instead of six, as stated by Mr. Harris." 

Another of Dr. Hildreth's letters, dated July 19th, 1819 : 

" In removing the earth which composed an ancient mound in 
one of the streets of Marietta, in the region of the plain, near the 
fortifications, several curious articles were discovered the latter 
part of June last. They appear to have been buried with the body 
of the person to whose memory the mound was erected. 

Lying immediately over or on the forehead of the body were 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



245 



found three large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt 
or buckler; they are composed of copper, overlaid with a thick 
plate of silver. Their fronts are slightly convex, with a depression 
like a cup, in the centre, and measure two inches and a quarter 
across the face of each. On the back side, opposite the depressed 
portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate 
plates, by which they were fastened to the leather. Two small 
pieces of leather were found lying between the plates of one of the 
bosses ; they resemble the skin of an old mummy, and seemed to 
have been preserved by the salts of the copper. The plates of cop- 
per are nearly reduced to an oxide, or rust. The silver looks quite 
black, but is not much corroded, and, on rubbing, it becomes quite 
brilliant. Two of these are yet entire ; the third one is so much 
wasted that it dropped in pieces on removing it from the earth. 
Around the rivet of one of them is a small quantity of flax or 
hemp in a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of the 
body was found a plate of silver which appears to have been the 
upper part of a sword scabbard ; it is six inches in length and two 
inches in breadth, and weighs an ounce ; it has no ornament or 
figures, but has three longitudinal ridges ; it seems to have been 
fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which 
yet remain in the silver. 

Two or three broken pieces of a copper tube were also found, 
filled with iron-rust. These pieces, from their appearance, com- 
posed the lower end of the scabbard near the point of the sword. 
No signs of the sword itself were discovered except the appear- 
ance of the rust above mentioned. 

Near the feet was found a piece of copper weighing three ounces. 
From its shape it appeared to have been used as a plumb or for an 
ornament, as near one of the ends is a circular crease or groove 
for tying a thread ; it is round, and two inches and a half in length 
and an inch in diameter at the centre, and half an inch at each 
end. It is composed of small pieces of native copper pounded 
together, and in the cracks between the pieces are stuck several 
pieces of silver, one near the size of a half-dime. This copper or- 
nament was covered with a coat of green rust, and is considerably 
corroded. A piece of red-ochre or paint, and a piece of iron ore, 
which has the appearance of having been partially vitrified, or 
melted, were also found. The pre is about the specific gravity of 
pure iron. 

The body of the person here buried was laid on the surface of 
the earth, with his face upwards, and his feet towards the north- 
east, and head towards the southwest. From the appearance of 



246 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XXII. 



several pieces of charcoal and bits of partially burnt fossil coal 
and the black color of the earth, it would seem that the funeral 
obsequies had been celebrated by fire ; a circle of thin, flat stones 
had been laid around and over the body. The circular covering- 
is about eight feet in diameter, and the stones yet look black, as 
if stained by fire and smoke. This circle of stones appears to 
have been the nucleus on which the mound was formed, as imme- 
diately over them is heaped the common earth of the adjacent 
plain, composed of clay, sand and coarse gravel. This mound 
must originally have been about ten feet high and thirty feet in 
diameter at its base. At the time of opening it the height was six 
feet and the diameter between thirty and forty. It has every ap- 
pearance of being as old as any in the neighborhood, and was, at 
the first settlement of Marietta, covered with large trees, the re- 
mains of whose roots were yet apparent in digging away the earth. 
It also seems to have been made for this single personage, as the 
remains of one skeleton only was discovered. The bones were 
much decayed, and many of them crumbled to dust on exposure 
to the air. From the length of some of them, it is supposed the 
person was about six feet in height. Nothing unusual was dis- 
covered in their form, except that those of the skull were uncom- 
monly thick." 

In another letter of the same year, of a later date, Dr. Hildreth 
says: "In addition to the articles found at Marietta, I have pro- 
cured from a mound on the Little Muskingum, about four miles 
from Marietta, some pieces of copper, which appear to have been 
the front part of a helmet. It was, originally, about eight inches 
long and four broad, and has marks of having been attached to 
leather; it is much decayed, and is now quite a thin plate. A 
copper ornament, in imitation of those described as found at 
Marietta, was discovered with the plate, and appears to have been 
attached to the centre of it by a rivet, the hole for which remains 
both in the plate and ornament. At this place the remains of a 
skeleton were found. No part of it retained its form but a por- 
tion of the forehead and the skull, which lay under the plate of 
copper. These bones are deeply tinged with green, and appear to 
have been preserved by the salts of copper. 

The mound in which these relics were found is about the mag- 
nitude of the one in Marietta, and has every appearance of being 
as ancient. It seems to be a well-established fact that the bodies 
of nearly all those buried in mounds were partially if not en- 
tirely consumed by fire before the mounds were built. This is 
made to appear by quantities of charcoal being found at the cen- 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



247 



tre and base of* the mounds, stones burnt and blackened, and 
marks of fire on the metallic substance buried with them. On no 
one of the articles yet found has been discovered any letters, 
characters, or hieroglyphics which would point to what nation 
or age these people belonged." 

As the Marietta ancient earthworks were the most perfect and 
most magnificent of any north of Mexico, I thought their impor- 
tance merited the attention I have given them. 

The letter of the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, of Brooke County, Vir- 
ginia, to Mr. Atwater contains the following in regard to the 
antiquities at Grave Creek : 

" Williamsburg, Va., May 27th, 1819. 

Dear Sir: Grave Creek Flat is about eleven miles below 
Wheeling. It is about two miles square, consisting, the most 
part, of a second bottom, the most ancient alluvion; about the 
middle of it Little Grave Creek puts onto the Ohio, and Great 
Grave Creek at the lower end of the flat. Between these creeks 
stand the ancient works, at the distance of about a quarter of a 
mile from the Ohio. 

The ' fortifications,' as they are called, are not remarkable 
ones, though a number of small mounds stand among them. In 
one of the tumuli, which was opened about twenty years since, 
sixty copper beads were found. Of these I procured ten. They 
were made of a coarse wire, which appeared to have been ham- 
mered out, and not drawn, and were cut off at unequal lengths. 
They were soldered together in an awkward manner, the centre 
of some of them uniting with the edges of others. They were 
incrusted with verdigris, but the inside of them was pure copper. 

The ' Big Grave,' as it is called, stands about halfway between 
the two creeks, and about a fourth of a mile from the (Ohio) river. 
It is certainly one of the most august monuments of remote an- 
tiquity anywhere to be found. Its circumference, at the base, is 
three hundred yards; its diameter of course one hundred. Its 
altitude, from measurement, is ninety feet; and its diameter at 
the summit is forty-five feet. The centre at the summit appears 
to have sunk several feet, so as to form a kind of small amphi- 
theatre. The rim, including this amphitheatre, is seven or eight 
feet in thickness. On the south side, in its edge, stands a large 
beech tree, whose bark is marked with the initials of a great num- 
ber of visitants. 

This lofty and venerable tumulus has been so far opened as 
to ascertain that it contains many thousands of human skeletons, 



248 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



but no farther. The proprietor of the ground will not suffer its 
demolition in the smallest degree. I, for one, do him honor for 
his sacred regard for these works of antiquity. 

A careful survey of the above-mentioned works would prob- 
ably show that they were all connected, and formed but parts of a 
whole, laid out with taste." 

From a work entitled " Virginia, its History and Antiquities," 
is taken the following : '* Grave Creek was first settled in 1770 by 
Joseph Tomlinson, an emigrant from Maryland. In 1772 he dis- 
covered the mammoth mound at this place, and about this time 
several other families from Maryland emigrated here. During the 
succeeding years the inhabitants suffered considerably from the 
Indians, and erected forts for their security." 

From Mr. Tomlinson's communication in the "American Pio- 
neer " we derive the following facts: "The mammoth mound is 
sixty-nine feet high, and about nine hundred feet in circumfer- 
ence at its base. It is a frustum of a cone, and has a flat top 
about fifty feet in diameter. This flat, until lately, was slightly 
depressed, occasioned, it is supposed, by the falling in of two vaults 
below. A few years since a white oak, about seventy feet in height, 
stood on the summit of the mound, which appeared to have died 
of old age. On carefully cutting the trunk transversely, the 
number of concentric circles showed that it was about five hun- 
dred years old. 

In 1838, Mr. Tomlinson commenced at the level of the sur- 
rounding ground, and ran in an excavation horizontally one hun- 
dred and eleven feet, when he came to a vault. This vault was 
twelve feet long, eight wide, and seven high. It was dry as any 
tight room. Along each side and the two ends stood upright 
timbers, which had supported transverse timbers forming the ceil- 
ing. Over the timbers had been placed unhewn stones, but the 
decay of the timbers occasioned the fall of the stones and the 
superincumbent earth, so as to nearly fill the vault. In this 
vault were found two skeletons, one of which was devoid of orna- 
ment; the other was surrounded by six hundred and fifty ivory 
beads, resembling button-moles, and an ivory ornament about six 
inches in length, which is one inch and five-eighths wide at the 
centre, half an inch wide at the ends, and on one side flat and on 
the other oval-shaped. A singular exudation of animal matter 
overhangs the roof of this vault. 

Another excavation was commenced at the top of the mound, 
downwards. Midway between the top and the bottom, and over 
the vault above described, a second and similar vault was discov- 



CHAP. XXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



249 



ered, and, like that, caved in by the falling of the ceiling, timbers 
and stones, etc. In the upper vault was found the singular hiero- 
glyphic stone, hereafter described, seventeen hundred ivory beads, 
five hundred sea-shells, of the involute species, that were worn as 
beads, and five copper bracelets about the wrists of the skeleton. 
The shells and beads were about the neck and breast of the skele- 
ton, and there were also about one hundred and fifty pieces of 
mica strewn over the body. 

The mound is composed of the same kind of earth as that around 
it, being a fine loamy sand, but differs very much in color from 
that of the natural ground. After penetrating about eight feet 
with the first or horizontal excavation, blue spots began to appear 
in the earth of which the mound was composed. On close ex- 
amination these spots were found to contain ashes and bits of 
burnt bones. These spots increased as they approached the centre; 
at the distance of one hundred and twenty feet within, the spots 
were so numerous and condensed as to give the earth a clouded 
appearance, and excited the admiration of all who saw it. Every 
part of the mound presents the same appearance except near the 
surface. The blue spots were probably occasioned by depositing 
the remains of the bodies consumed by fire* 

In addition to the relics in the mammoth mound, there has been 
a great number and variety of relics found in the neighborhood. 
Many of them were discovered with skeletons, which were nearly 
decayed. Mr. Tomlinson has some beads found about two miles 
from this great mound that are evidently a kind of porcelain, and 
very similar, if not identical, in substance with the artificial teeth 
set by dentists. He has also an image of stone, found, with other 
relics, about eight miles distant. It is in human shape, sitting in 
a cramped position, the face and eyes projecting upwards. The 
nose is what is called Roman. On the crown of the head is a 
knot in which the hair is concentrated and tied. The head and 
features particularly is a display of great workmanship and inge- 
nuity. It is eleven inches in height, but if it were straight would 
be double that height. It is generally believed to have been an 
idol." 

From the same book is the following : — 

Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft visited Grave Creek in August, 1843, 
and devoted several days to the examination of the antique works 
of art at that place. We were subsequently at Grave Creek, and 

* May they not have been remains of victims sacrificed at the funeral of this 
entombed chief? 



250 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXII. 



obtained an impression in wax of the hieroglyphical stone to 
which he alludes. An accurate engraving from this impression 
we insert in its proper place. The result of Mr. Schoolcraft's in- 
vestigations is partially given below : 

" I have devoted several days to the examination of the anti- 
quities of this place. The most prominent object of curiosity is 
the great mound. It is but one of a series of mounds and other 
evidences of ancient occupation at this point of more than ordi- 
nary interest. I have visited and examined seven mounds situa- 
ted within a short distance of each other. They occupy the 
summit level of a rich alluvial plain stretching on the left bank 
of the Ohio, between the junction of the Big and the Little Grave 
creeks with that stream. They appear to have been connected by 
low earthen entrenchments, of which plain traces are still visible 
on some parts of the commons. They include a well, stoned up 
in the usual manner, which is now rilled with rubbish. 

The summit of this plain is probably seventy-five feet above the 
present summit-level of the Ohio. It constitutes the second bench 
or rise of land above the water. It is on one of the most elevated 
parts of the summit that the great tumulus stands. The circum- 
ference of the base has been stated at a little less than nine hun- 
dred feet ; the height is sixty-nine feet. 

The most interesting object of antiquarian inquiry is a small, 
flat stone, inscribed with antique alphabetic characters, which was 
disclosed on opening the mound. These characters are in the 
ancient rock-alphabet of sixteen right and acute-angled single 
strokes used by the Pelasgi and other early Mediterranean nations, 
and which is the parent of the modern Runic as well as the Bardic. 
It is now some four or five years since the completion of these ex- 
cavations, so far as they have been made, and the discovery of this 
relic. Several copies of it soon got abroad, which differed from 
each other, and, as it was supposed, from the original. This con- 
jecture is true. Neither the print published in the ' Cincinnati 
Gazette' in 1839, nor that in the ' American Pioneer' in 1843, is 
correct. I have terminated this uncertainty by taking copies by a 
scientific process, which does not leave the lines and figures to the 
uncertainty of a man's pencil. 

I rode out yesterday three miles back, to the range of high hills 
which encompass this sub-valley, to see a rude tower of stone stand- 
ing on an elevated point called Parr's Point, which commands a 
view of the whole plain, and which appears to have been con- 
structed as a watch-tower or lookout, from which to descry an ap- 
proaching enemy. It is much dilapidated. About six or seven 



CHAP. XXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



251 



feet of the work is still entire. It is circular, and composed of 
rough stones laid without mortar or the mark of a hammer. A 
heavy mass of fallen walls lies around, covering an area of some 
forty feet in diameter. Two similar points of observation occupied 
by dilapidated towers are represented to exist, one at the promi- 
nent summit of the Ohio and Grave creek hills, and another on 
the promontory on the opposite side of the Ohio, in Belmont 
county, Ohio. 

It is well known to all acquainted with the warlike habits of 
our Indians that they never evince the foresight to post a regular 
sentry, and these rude towers may be regarded as of cotempora- 
neous age with the interment of the inscription. 

Several polished tubes of stone have been found in one of the 
lesser mounds, the use of which is not very apparent. One of 
these, now on my table, is twelve inches long, one and a fourth 
wide at one end and one and a-half at the other. It is made of a 
fine, compact, lead-blue stealite, mottled, and has been constructed 
by boring, in the manner of a gun-barrel. This boring is con- 
tinued to within about three-eighths of an inch of the larger end, 
through which but a small aperture is left. If this small aperture 
be looked through, objects at a distance are more clearly seen. 
The degree of art evinced in its construction is far from rude. By 
inserting a wooden rod and valve, this tube would be converted 
into a powerful syringe." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Tumuli— The American Bottom — The Mounds of Cahokia — The Mounds of 
St. Louis— The Mummy of Tennessee— The Mounds of St. Charles— The 
Trinity Mounds. 

In speaking of American antiquities, I prefer to quote the ear- 
liest writers in regard to these, for they had certain advantages over 
those who subsequently visited them, for by the settlement of the 
country considerable changes have been made in them, and some 
monuments that then existed have disappeared. Breckenridge 
wrote in 1811, and he thus speaks of the mounds of the American 
Bottom : 

" To form a more correct idea of these, it will be necessary to 
give the reader some idea of the tract of country in which they are 
situated. The American Bottom is a tract of rich alluvium land 



252 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIII. 



extending on the Mississippi from Kaskaskia to the Cahokia river, 
about eighty miles in length and five in breadth. Several hand- 
some streams meander through it, the soil of the richest kind, and 
but little subject to the effects of the Mississippi floods. A num- 
ber of lakes are interspersed through it, with high and fine banks. 
These abound in fish, and, in the autumn, are visited by millions 
of wild fowl. There is perhaps no spot (of the same area) in the 
western country capable of being more highly cultivated or of giv- 
ing support to a more numerous population than this valley. If 
any vestige of ancient population were to be found, this would be 
the place to search for it. Accordingly this tract, as also the bank 
of the river on the western side, exhibits proofs of an immense 
population.* If the city of Philadelphia and its environs were de- 
serted there would not be more numerous traces of human exist- 
ence. The great number of mounds, and the astonishing quan- 
tity of human bones everywhere dug up or found on the surface 
of the ground, with a thousand other appearances, announce that 
this valley was, at one period, filled with habitations and villages. 
The whole face of the bluff or hill, which bounds it on the east, 
appears to have been a continued burial-ground.f . 

But the most remarkable appearances are two groups of mounds 
or pyramids, the one about ten miles above Cahokia, the other 
nearly the same distance below it, which in all exceed one hun- 

* " The Saline, below St. Genevieve, cleared out some time ago, and deep- 
ened, was found to contain wagon-loads of earthenware. Some fragments be- 
speak vessels as large as a barrel, and proving that the Salines had been worked 
before they were known to the whites." Breckenridge's note. 

I may add that similar discoveries have been made on the Red river of Ken- 
tucky and on the Saline river of Illinois. — B. S. 

f Yet in June, 1844, a great flood took place in the Mississippi. About the 
8th or 10th the river commenced to rise rapidly. By the 16th the curbstones of 
Front Street, St. Louis, were under water. Illinois and Brooklyn were nearly 
submerged, the occupants of the houses being driven to the upper stories. The 
American Bottom was a turbid sea. The town of Naples was inundated, boats 
plying in the streets The river reached its greatest height at St. Louis on the 
24th of June, when it was seven feet seven inches above the city directrix. The 
water in its abatement did not reach the city directrix until the 14th of July. 
The rise of 1844 reached a higher elevation than any previous flood of the Mis- 
sissippi at this point. The great flood of 1785 was surpassed, as were also the 
floods of 1811 and 1826. (L. N. Reevis.) 

I was at St. Louis at the height of the flood of 1844, when steamboats made 
pleasure excursions over the American Bottom, and yet this bottom was anciently 
densely populated (probably more than a thousand years before) ; and so was 
Egypt thousands of years before that date, and yet annually flooded by the Nile. 
— B. S. 



CHAP. XXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



253 



dred and fifty, of various sizes. The western side also contains a 
considerable number. 

I examined with great care the mounds near St. Louis, and, 
hearing of others of a more remarkable character on the eastern 
side of the river, I took my rifle and crossed over, intending to 
pass a day or two among them, and was highly delighted with 
what I saw. They were situated in a vast alluvial plain about six 
miles in width, stretching to the river-hills ; and the first were 
about two miles from the Mississippi, and then continued at inter- 
vals, in a diagonal direction, until I reached the principal mound 
and group near the margin of a narrow but deep stream which 
traverses the immense body of fertile land usually called the 
American Bottom, and not less than eighty or a hundred miles 
in length. I was seized with astonishment as I ascended the 
large mound. 

At the time of my first visit there was no one living within 
many miles of the place, but in a second visit, the year following, 
I found a colony of the monks of La Trappe established in the 
midst of them, their dwellings occupying a smaller mound, a 
hundred yards west of the great mound of Cahokia.* 

A more minute description of those above Cahokia, which I 
visited in the fall (November) of 1811, will give a tolerable idea 
of them all. 

I crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis, and after passing through 
the wood which borders the river, about half a mile in width, 
entered an extensive open plain. In fifteen minutes I found my- 
self in the midst of a group of mounds, mostly of circular shape, 
and at a distance resembling enormous haystacks scattered through 
a meadow. One of the largest, which I ascended, was about two 
hundred paces in circumference at the base, the form nearly square, 
though it had evidently undergone considerable alteration from 
the washing of the rains. The top was level, with an area suf- 
ficient to contain several hundred men. 

The prospect from this mound is very beautiful, looking towards 
the bluffs, which are dimly seen at the distance of six or eight 
miles. The bottom at this place being very wide, I had a level 
plain before me, varied by islets of wood and a few solitary trees ; 
to the right the prairie is bounded by the horizon ; to the left the 
curve of the Cahokia may be distinguished by the margin of wood 
upon its banks and crossing the valley diagonally south-south- 
west. Around me I counted forty-five mounds or pyramids, be- 

* "Views of Louisiana" and "Recollections of the West," by H. M. Breek- 
enridge. 



254 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIII. 



sides a great number of small artificial elevations. These mounds 
form something more than a semicircle, about a mile in extent, 
the open space on the river. 

Pursuing my walk along the banks of the Cahokia, I passed 
eight others, in the distance of three miles, before I arrived at the 
largest assemblage. When I reached the foot of the principal 
mound, I was struck with a degree of astonishment, not unlike 
that which is experienced in contemplating the Egyptian Pyra- 
mids. What a stupendous pile of earth ! To heap up such a mass 
must have required years and the labor of thousands. It stands 
immediately on the bank of the Cahokia, and, on the side next 
it, is covered with lofty trees. Were it not for the regularity and 
design which it manifests, the circumstance of its being in alluvial 
ground, and other mounds scattered around it, we could scarcely 
believe it the work of human hands. The shape is that of a paral- 
lelogram standing from north to south ; on the south side there is 
a broad apron or step, about half way down, and from this another 
projection into the plain, about fifteen feet wide, which was prob- 
ably intended as an ascent to the mound. By stepping around 
the base, I computed the circumference to be at least eight hun- 
dred yards, and the height of the mound about ninety feet. The 
step or apron has been used as a kitchen-garden by the monks of 
La Trappe settled near this, and the top is sown with wheat. 
Nearly west there is another of a smaller size, and forty others 
scattered through the plain. Two are also seen on the bluff, at 
the distance of three miles. Several of these mounds are almost 
conical. As the sward had been burnt, the earth was perfectly 
naked, and I could trace with ease any unevenness of surface, so 
as to discover whether it was artificial or accidental. I everywhere 
observed a great number of small elevations of earth to the height 
of a few feet, at regular distances from each other, and which 
appeared to observe some order. Near them I also observed 
pieces of flint and fragments of earthen vessels. I concluded that 
a very populous town had once existed here, similar to those of 
Mexico described by the first conquerors. The mounds were sites 
of temples, or monuments to the great men. It is evident that this 
could never have been the work of thinly-scattered tribes. 

Hunter and Dunbar describe a mound at the junction of the 
Catahoula, Washita and Tensas rivers very similar in shape to 
the large one at Cahokia. I saw it last summer* It has a step 
or apron, and is surrounded by a group of ten or twelve other 



* The copyright of " Views of Louisiana" is dated 1813. 



CHAP. XXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



255 



mounds of a smaller size. In the vicinity of New Madrid there 
are a number ; one, on the bank of a lake, is at least four hundred 
yards in circumference, and surrounded by a ditch at least ten 
feet wide, and at present five feet deep ; it is about forty feet in 
height and level on the top. I have frequently examined the 
mounds at St. Louis ; they are situated on the second bank, just 
above the town, and disposed in a singular manner; there are 
nine in all, and form three sides of a parallelogram, the open side 
towards the country being protected, however, by three smaller 
mounds placed in a circular manner. The space enclosed is 
about four hundred yards in length, and two hundred in breadth. 
About six hundred yards above- there is a single mound with a 
broad stage on the river side ; it is thirty feet in height, and one 
hundred and fifty in length. The top is a mere ridge of five or 
six feet wide. Below the first mounds there is a curious work, 
called the Falling Garden. Advantage is taken of the second 
bank, nearly fifty feet in height at this place, and three regular 
stages or steps are formed by earth brought from a distance. 
This work is much admired — it suggests the idea of a place of 
assembly for the purpose of counseling on public occasions." 

Although similar sentiments have been herein expressed be- 
fore, yet the opinion of such a man as H. M. Breckenridge should 
give additional force to them, and therefore his reflections are 
here given as expressed by him in his " Views of Louisiana." He 
says : — " In tracing the origin of institutions or inventions amongst 
men, we are apt to forget that nations, however diversified by 
manners and language, are yet of the same species, and that the 
same institutions may originate among twenty different people. 
Adair takes great pains to prove a similarity of customs between 
the American tribes and the Jews. Lapiteau shows the existence 
of a still greater number common to the Greeks and Romans. The 
result to the philosophic mind is no more than this, that the 
American tribes belong to the human race, and that men, with- 
out any intercourse with each other, will, in innumerable in- 
stances, fall upon the same mode of acting. The wonder would 
be that they should not show a resemblance. We find these 
mounds in every part of the globe. In the north of Europe and 
in Great Britain they are numerous, and much resemble ours, 
but less considerable. The pyramids of Egypt are perhaps the 
oldest monuments of human labor in that country, so favorable 
for the production of a numerous population. The pyramids of 
Mexico, which are but little known, and yet scarcely less consid- 
erable, like those of Egypt, have their origin hid in the night of 



256 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIII. 



oblivion. Humboldt is of opinion that * these edifices must be 
classed with the pyramidal monuments of Asia, of which traces 
were found even in Arcadia, for the conical mausoleum of Cal- 
listus was a true tumulus, covered with fruit trees, and served as 
a base to a small temple consecrated to Diana.' The great altar 
of Jupiter at Olympus was nothing more than a huge mound of 
earth, with stone steps to ascend. Humboldt remarks with aston- 
ishment the similarity of the Asiatic and Egyptian pyramids to 
those of Mexico. The similarity of those which he describes* to 
the mounds or pyramids on the Mississippi is still more striking, 
but not a matter of so much wonder. The only difference is that 
a few of the Mexican pyramids are larger, and some appear to 
have been faced with stone or brick. 

Like those of Mexico, wherever there has been a considerable 
town we find two large pyramids, supposed to represent the sun 
and the moon, and a number of smaller ones to represent the 
stars. There is very little doubt but that they originated with the 
same people, for they may be considered as existing in the same 
country. 

A curious discovery made a few years ago in the State of 
Tennessee proves beyond doubt that at some remote period the 
valley of the Mississippi had been inhabited by a people much 
more civilized than those first known to us. Two human bodies 
were found in a copperas cave in a surprising state of preservation. 
They were first wrapped up in a kind of blanket, supposed to have 
been manufactured of the lint of nettles, afterwards with dressed 
skins, and then a mat of nearly sixty yards in length. They were 
clad in a beautiful cloth, interwoven with feathers, such as was 
manufactured by the Mexicans. They had been here perhaps for 
centuries, and certainly were of a different race from the modern 
Indians. 't 

Timothy Flint, who saw one of these mummies, thus speaks of 
it in his " Recollections : " " The two bodies that were found in 
the vast limestone cave in Tennessee, one of which I saw at Lex- 
ington, w r ere neither of them more than four feet in height. It 
seemed to me that they must have been nearly the height of the 
living person. The teeth and nails did not seem to indicate the 
shrinking of the flesh from them in the desiccating process by 
which they were preserved. The teeth were separated by consid- 

i 

* Mexican Teocallis. In the eighty-four years that have elapsed since Breck- 
enridge wrote the above, great researches and discoveries have been made in 

Egypt 

t Breckenridge's "Views of Louisiana," p. 190. 



CHAP. XXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



257 



erable intervals, and were small, white and sharp. The hair 
seemed to have been sandy, or inclined to yellow.* It is well 
known that nothing is so uniform in the present Indian as his 
lank, black hair. From the pains taken to preserve the bodies, 
and the great labor of making the funeral robes in which they 
were folded, they must have been of the ' blood royal ' or persons 
of great consideration in their day. The person that I saw had 
evidently died by a blow on the skull. The blood had coagulated 
there into a mass of texture and color sufficiently marked to show 
that it had been blood. The envelope of the body was double. 
Two splendid blankets, completely woven with the most beautiful 
feathers of the wild turkey, arranged in regular stripes and copart- 
ments, encircled it. The cloth on which these feathers were woven 
was a kind of linen of neat texture, of the same kind with that 
which is now woven from the fibre of the nettle. The body was 
evidently that of a female of middle age, and I should suppose 
that her majesty weighed, when I saw her, six or eight pounds."f 
" You will expect me," says Flint, " to say something of the 
lonely records of the former races that inhabited this country. 
That there has formerly been a much more numerous population 
than exists here at present, I am fully impressed from the result 
of my own personal observation. From the highest points of the 
Ohio to where I am now writing,! and far up the Upper Missis- 
sippi and the Missouri, the same country is explored and peopled, 
and the more its surface is penetrated not only are there more 
mounds brought to view, but more incontestable marks of a nu- 
merous population. Wells artificially walled, different struc- 
tures of convenience or defence, have been found in such numbers 
as no longer to excite curiosity. Ornaments of silver and of cop- 
per, pottery, of which I have seen numberless specimens in all 
these waters, not to mention the mounds themselves, and the still 
more tangible evidences of human bodies found in a state of pres- 
ervation, and of sepulchres full of bones, are unquestionable 
demonstrations that this country was once possessed of a numer- 
ous population. Some of the mounds, such, for example, as those 
between the two Miamis, those near the Cahokia, and those far 
down the Mississippi in the vicinity of St. Francisville, Louisi- 
ana, must have been works of great labor. Whatever may have 

* In u Peruvian Antiquities," by Rivero & Tschudi, is this of a Peruvian 
mummy : " The hair is always perfectly preserved, that of the women artificially 
braided, but the black pigment or coloring matter had lost more or less of its 
primitive color, and had become reddish." 

t ''Flint's Recollections." J St. Charles,, Mo. 

17 



258 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIII. 



been their former objects and uses, they all exhibited indication of 
art. All that I have seen were in regular forms, generally cones 
or parallelograms. If it be remarked that the rude monuments of 
this kind, those of the Mexican Indians even, are structures of 
stone, and that these are all of earth, I can only say that these me- 
morials of former toil and existence are, as far as my observation 
has extended, all in regions destitute of stones. 

You have been informed that I cultivated a small farm on that 
beautiful prairie below St. Charles, called ' The Mamelle ' or 
Point Prairie. In my enclosure, and directly back of my house, 
were two conical mounds of considerable elevation. A hundred 
paces in front of them was a high bench, marking the shore of the 
' Marais Croche,' an extensive marsh, and evidently the former 
bed of the Missouri. In digging a ditch on the margin of this 
bench, at the depth of four feet, we discovered great quantities of 
broken pottery belonging to vessels of all sizes and characters. 
Some must have been of a size to contain four gallons. I have 
walked on these mounds. I have surveyed their form, have as- 
certained that they are full of human bones. 

We have prairies which have struck me as among the sublimest 
prospects of nature. In the most pleasing position of these prai- 
ries we have our Indian mounds which proudly rise above the 
plain. At first the eye mistakes them for hills, but when it catches 
the regularity of these breastwork's and ditches it discovers at once 
that they are the labors of art and of men. When the evidences 
of the senses convince us that human bones moulder in these 
masses, when you dig about them and bring to light their domes- 
tic utensils and are compelled to believe that the busy tide of life 
once flowed here, when you see at once that these races were of a 
very different character from the present generation, you begin to 
inquire if any tradition, if any, the faintest, records can throw any 
light upon these habitations of men of another age. Is there no 
scope beside these mounds for imagination, and for contemplation 
of the past? The men, their joys, their sorrows, their bones, are 
all buried together ; but the grand features of nature remain. 
There is the beautiful prairie over which they 'strutted through 
life's poor play.' The forests, the hills, the mounds lift their 
heads in unalterable repose, and furnish the same sources of con- 
templation to us that they did to those generations that have 
passed away. 

It is true we have little reason to suppose that they were the 
guilty dens of petty tyrants, who let loose their half-savage vassals 
to burn, plunder, enslave, and despoil an adjoining den. There are 



CHAP. XXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



259 



no remains of the vast and useless monasteries, where ignorant 
and lazy monks dreamed over their lusts or meditated their vile 
plans of acquisition and imposture. Here must have been a race 
of men on these charming plains that had every call from the 
scenes that surrounded them to contented existence and tranquil 
meditation. Unfortunately, as men view things, they must have 
been innocent and peaceful — they probably were, for had they 
been reared amidst wars and quarrels, like the present Indians, 
they would doubtless have maintained their ground, and their 
posterity would have remained to this day. Beside them moulder 
the huge bones of their cotemporary beasts, which must have been 
of thrice the size of the elephant. I cannot judge of the recollec- 
tions excited by castles and towers that I have not seen, but I 
have seen all of grandeur which our cities can display. I have 
seen, too, these lonely tombs of the desert — seen them rise from 
these boundless and unpeopled plains. My imagination had been 
filled, and my heart has been full. The nothingness of the brief 
dream of human life has forced itself upon my mind. The un- 
known race to which these bones belonged had, I doubt not, as 
many projects of ambition and hoped as sanguinely to have their 
names survive as the great of the present day."* 

Mr. Dunbar and Dr. Hunter and party were employed by the 
government of the United States to make a survey of and explore 
the country traversed by the Washita River. They left St. Cath- 
arine's Landing, on the Mississippi, Tuesday, 16th of October, 1804, 
and on their return Mr. Dunbar reached his home, about twelve 
miles from Natchez, on the 20th of December, 1804, and Dr. Hunter 
and party, St. Catharine's Landing the morning of January 31, 1805. 

The following is from a sketch of their report, and relates to the 
mounds at Trinity, where the Catahoula, Washita, and Bayou Ten- 
sas unite their waters and form Black River, which, in many places, 
does not exceed eighty yards in width : 

" On arriving at the uiouth of the Catahoula they landed to 
obtain information from a Frenchman settled there. His house 
stands on an Indian mound, with several others in view. There 
is also a species of rampart surrounding this place, and one very 
elevated mound. 

There is an embankment running from the Catahoula to Black 
River (including about two hundred acres of rich land), at present 
about ten feet high and ten feet broad. This surrounds four large 
mounds of earth, at the distance of a bow-shot from each other, each 
of which may be twenty feet high, one hundred feet broad, and 

* Flint's " Recollections," etc. 



260 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIV. 



three hundred feet long at the top, besides a stupendous turret on 
the back part of the whole, or farthest from the water, whose base 
covers about an acre of ground, rising by two steps or stories, 
tapering in the ascent, the whole surmounted with a great cone, 
with its top cut off. This tower of earth, on admeasurement, was 
found to be eighty feet perpendicular." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Bartram's Account of the Cherokees, Museogulges, Creeks, and Choctaws. 

William Bartram. the American botanist, spent four or five 
years, from 1773. in travelling through what is now Florida, Geor- 
gia, Alabama, Mississippi, leaving Charleston, South Carolina, in 
April, 1773, and reaching Point Coupee, on the Mississippi River, 
in 1777, even visiting the part of the Cherokee country in Tennes- 
see, and on his return from his travels reached his father's house, 
on the banks of the Schuylkill, within four miles of Philadelphia, 
January, 1778. Thus Bartram had ample time and opportunities 
to study the Indians of the territory between the Savannah and 
the Mississippi rivers south of Tennessee, and he thus describes 
them : 

" The males of the Cherokees, Museogulges,* Seminoles, Chicka- 
saws, Choctaws. and confederate tribes of the Creeks, are tall, erect, 
and moderately robust ; their limbs well shaped, so as generally 
to form a perfect human figure ; their features regular, and coun- 
tenance open, dignified, and placid, yet the forehead and brow so 
formed as to strike you instantly with heriosm and bravery ; the 
eye. though rather small, yet active "and full of fire : the iris always 
black, and the nose commonly inclined to the aquiline. 

Their countenance and actions exhibit an air of magnanimity, 
superiority, and independence. 

Their complexion of a reddish-brown or copper-color ; their hair 
long, lank, coarse, and black as a raven, and reflecting the like 
lustre at different exposures to the light. 

The women of the Cherokees are tall, slender, erect, and of a 
delicate frame, their features formed with perfect symmetry, their 
countenance cheerful and friendly, and they move with becoming 
grace and dignity. 

* Muscogulge is the Indian name of Creeks, the word Creeks being an Eng- 
lish name. 



CHAP. XXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



261 



The Muscogulge women, though remarkably short of stature, 
are well formed, their visage round, features regular and beautiful ; 
the brow high and arched ; the eye large, black, languishing, ex- 
pressive of modesty, diffidence, and bashfulness ; they are loving 
and affectionate. They are, I believe, the smallest race of women 
yet known, seldom above five feet high, and I believe the greater^ 
number never arrive at that stature ; their hands and feet not 
larger than those of Europeans of nine or ten years of age ; yet 
the men are of gigantic stature, a full size larger than Europeans, 
many of them above six feet and few under that or five feet eight 
or ten inches ; their complexion much darker than that of any 
of the tribes to the north of them that I have seen. This descrip- 
tion will, I believe, comprehend the Muscogulges, their confeder- 
ates, the Choctaws, and, I believe, the Chickasaws (though I have 
never seen their women), excepting, however, some bands of the 
Seminoles, Uches, and Savannucas, who are rather taller and slen- 
derer, and their complexion brighter. 

The Cherokees are yet taller and more robust than the Musco- 
gulges, and by far the largest race of men I have seen,* their com- 
plexion brighter, and somewhat of an olive cast, especially the 
adults, and many of their women are nearly as fair and blooming 
as European women. 

The Cherokees, in their disposition and manner are grave and 
steady, dignified and circumspect in their deportment ; rather 
slow and reserved in conversation, yet frank, cheerful, and hu- 
mane ; tenacious of the liberties and natural rights of man ; secret, 
deliberate, and determined in their councils ; honest, just, and 
liberal, and ready always to sacrifice every pleasure and gratifica- 
tion, even their blood, and life itself, to defend their territory and 
maintain their rights. They do homage to the Muscogulges with 
reluctance, and are impatient under their galling yoke. 

The national character of the Muscogulges, when considered in 
a political view, exhibits a portraiture of a great or illustrious hero. 
A proud, haughty, and arrogant race of men, they are brave and 
valiant in war, ambitious of conquest, restless and perpetually ex- 
ercising their arms, yet magnanimous and merciful to a van- 
quished enemy, when he submits and seeks their friendship and 
protection ; always uniting the vanquished tribes in confederacy 
with them, when they immediately enjoy, unexceptionally, every 

* c< There are, however, some exceptions to this general observation, as I 
have myself witnessed. Their present grand chief (the Little Carpenter), Atta- 
kul-kulla, is a man of remarkably small stature, slender, and of a delicate frame, 
the only instance I saw in the nation ; but he is a man of superior abilities." 



262 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIV. 



right of free citizens, and are from that moment united in one 
common bond of brotherhood.* They were never known to ex- 
terminate a tribe, except the Yamasees, who would never submit 
on any terms, but fought it out to the last, only about forty or fifty 
of them escaping at the last decisive battle, who threw themselves 
under the protection of the Spaniards at St. Augustine. 

If we consider them with respect to their private character, or in 
a moral view, the} 7 must. I think, claim our approbation, if we di- 
vest ourselves of prejudice and think freely. As moral men they 
certainly stand in no need of European civilization. 

They are just, honest, liberal and hospitable ; considerate, loving 
and affectionate to their wives and relations ; fond of their chil- 
dren, industrious, frugal, temperate and persevering, charitable and 
forbearing. I have been weeks and months amongst them, and in 
their towns, and never observed the least sign of contention or 
wrangling ; never saw an instance of an Indian beating his wife, 
or even reproving her in anger. In this case they stand as exam- 
ples of reproof to the most civilized nations, as not being defective 
in justice, gratitude and good understanding, for indeed their 
wives merit their esteem and the most gentle treatment, the}' being 
industrious, frugal, careful, loving and affectionate. 

The Muscogulges are more volatile, sprightly and talkative than 
their northern neighbors, the Cherokees, and though far more dis- 
tant from the white settlement than any nation east of the Missis- 
sippi, appear evidently to have made greater advancement towards 
the refinements of true civilization. 

It is astonishing, though a fact, as well as a sharp reproof to the 
white people, if they will allow themselves liberty to reflect and 
form a just estimate, and I must own elevates these people to the 
first rank among mankind, that they have been able to resist the 
continual efforts of the complicated host of vices that have for 
ages overrun the nations of the Old World, and contaminated 
their morals ; and yet more so since such vast armies of these evil 
spirits have invaded this continent and closely invested them on 
all sides. 

The Muscogulges with their confederates, the Choctaws, Chick - 
asaws, and perhaps the Cherokees, eminently deserve the encomi- 
ums of all nations for their wisdom and virtue in resisting, and 
even in repelling the greatest, and even the common enemy of 
mankind, at least of most of the European nations ; I mean spirit- 

* The Peruvians did almost the same, but they assigned the vanquished a 
different territory from that they had occupied previously to being vanquished, 
thus destroying local tics, to attach them to the ge neral welfare. 



CHAP. XXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



263 



uous liquors. The first and most cogent article in all their treaties 
with the white people is ' that there shall not be any kind of 
spirituous liquors sold or brought into their towns.' 

The king, although he is acknowledged to be the first and great- 
est man in the town or tribe, and honored with every due and 
rational mark of love and esteem, and, when presiding in council, 
with a humility and homage as reverent as that paid to the most 
despotic monarch in Europe or the East, and when absent his seat 
is not filled by any other person, yet he is not dreaded ; and when 
not of the council, he associates with the people as a common man, 
converses with them, and they with him, in perfect ease and famil- 
iarity. 

The Mico, or king, though elective, yet his advancement to that 
supreme dignity must be understood in a very different light from 
the elective monarchs of the Old World, where the progress to 
magistracy is generally effected by schism and the influence of 
friends gained by craft, bribery, and often by more violent 
methods, and after the throne is obtained by measures little better 
than usurpation, he must be protected and supported there by the 
same base means that carried him thither. 

But here behold the majesty of the Muscogulge Mico ! He does 
not either publicly or privately beg of the people to place him in 
a situation to command or rule over them, and his appearance is 
altogether mysterious ; as a beneficent deity he rises king over 
them as the sun rises to bless the earth ! 

No one will tell you how or when he became king, but he is 
universally acknowledged to be the greatest person among them, 
and he is loved, esteemed and reverenced, although he associates, 
eats, drinks and dances with them in common as other men ; his 
dress is the same, and a stranger could not distinguish the king's 
habitation from that of any other citizen by any sort of splendor 
or magnificence, yet he perceives they act as though their Mico 
beheld them, himself invisible. In a word, their Mico seems to 
them the representative of Providence, or the Great Spirit, whom 
they acknowledge to preside over and influence their councils and 
public proceedings. He personally presides daily in their coun- 
cils, either at the rotunda or the public square, and even here his 
voice is regarded no more than that of any other chief or senator, 
no farther than his advice as being that of the best and wisest man 
of the tribe, and not by virtue of regal prerogative. 

The most active part of the Mico is in the civil government of 
the town or tribe ; here he has the power and prerogative of call- 
ing a council to deliberate on peace or war, or all public concerns, 



264 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIV. 



as inquiring into and deciding upon complaints and differences, 
but he has not the least shadow of exclusive executive power. He 
is complimented with the first visits of strangers, giving audience 
to ambassadors with presents, and he has also the disposal of the 
public granary. 

The next man in order of dignity and power is the great war 
chief ; he represents and exercises the dignity of the Mico, in his 
absence ; in the council his voice is of the greatest weight in mili- 
tary affairs ; his power and authority are entirely independent of 
the Mico, though when a Mico goes on an expedition he heads the 
army, and is there the war chief. There are many of these war 
chiefs in a town or tribe who are captains or leaders of military 
parties ; they are elderly men who in their youthful days have 
distinguished themselves in war b}^ their valor, subtlety and in- 
trepidity, and these veteran chiefs, in a great degree, constitute 
their lively, dignified and venerable senate. 

There is in every town or tribe a high priest, besides several ju- 
niors or graduates, but the ancient high priest or seer presides in 
spiritual affairs, and is a person of consequence ; he maintains and 
exercises great influence in the State, particularly in military af- 
fairs ; the senate never determines an expedition against their ene- 
mies without his counsel and assistance. These people believe 
that their seer has communion with powerful invisible spirits, 
who, they believe, have a share in the rule and government of hu- 
man affairs, as well as the elements ; that he can predict the re- 
sult of an expedition ; and his influence is so great that they have 
been known frequently to stop and turn back an army when within 
a day's journey of the enemy, after a march of several hundred 
miles.* They foretell rain or drouth, and pretend to bring rain 
at pleasure, cure diseases and exercise witchcraft, invoke or expel 
spirits, and even assume power of directing thunder and light- 
ning. 

These Indians are by no means idolators, unless their puffing 
the tobacco-smoke towards the sun and rejoicing at the appear- 
ance of the new moon may be termed so. So far from idolatry 
are they that they have no images among them,f nor any religious 
rite or ceremony that I could perceive, but adore the Great Spirit 
with the most profound and respectful homage. They believe in 
a future state where the spirit exists. 

* A case of this kind happened in an expedition in which a detachment of 
Laudonnier's men accompanied a Floridian army in 1564. 

f Then the images found in the great mound near Cartersville, in the State of 
Georgia, must have been idols of some other race. 



CHAP. XXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



265 . 



The men shave their heads, leaving only a narrow crest or comb 
(like a chicken's) about two inches broad, and about the same 
height. Their ears are lacerated, separating the border or carti- 
laginous limb, which is bound round very close and tight until 
healed (in which they wear ornaments). 

They have large silver crescents, or gorgets, which being sus- 
pended from the neck lie upon the breast, and the arms are orna- 
mented with silver bands, or bracelets, and silver and gold chains, 
and a collar invests the neck. The head, neck and breast are 
painted with vermilion, and some of the warriors have the skin 
of the breast and muscular parts of the body very curiously in- 
scribed or adorned with hieroglyphics, scrolls, flowers, figures of 
animals, crescents, and the sun in the centre of the breast. This 
is performed by pricking the skin and rubbing in a bluish tint. 

The junior priests or students constantly wear the mantle or 
robe, which is white, and they have a great owl skin cased and 
stuffed very ingeniously, so well executed as almost to represent 
the living bird, having large sparkling glass beads or buttons 
fixed in the head for eyes. This ensign of wisdom and divina- 
tion they wear sometimes as a crest on the top of the head ; at 
other times the image sits on the arm, or is borne in the hand. 
These bachelors are also distinguished from the other people by 
their taciturnity, grave and solemn countenances, dignified step, 
and singing to themselves songs and hymns in a low, sweet voice, 
as they stroll about the town.* 

They have feasts or festivals for almost every month in the year. 
The busk, or feast of first fruits, is their principal festival ; this 
seems to end the last and begin the neiv year. It commences in 
August, when their new crops of corn are arrived at perfect ma- 
turity, and every town celebrates the busk separately, when their 
own harvest is ready. If they have any religious rite or cere- 
mony, this festival is its most solemn celebration. When a town 
celebrates the bush, having previously provided themselves with 
new clothes, new pots, new pans, and other household utensils 
and furniture, they collect all their worn-out clothes and other 
despicable things, sweep and cleanse their houses, squares, and 
the whole town of their filth, which, with all the remaining grain 
and other old provisions, they cast together in one common heap, 
and consume it with fire. After having taken medicine, and fasted 
for three days, all the fire in the town is extinguished. During 
this fast they abstain from the gratification of every appetite and 

* It is remarkable, the adoption of this emblem of wisdom by the Trojans, 
Greeks, and Muscogulges. 



. 266 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIV. 



passion whatever. A general amnesty is proclaimed, all malefac- 
tors may return to their town, and they are absolved from their 
crimes, which are now forgotten, and they restored to favor. On 
the fourth morning the high-priest, by rubbing dry wood together, 
produces new fire in the public square, from whence every habi- 
tation in the town is supplied with the new and pure flame. Then 
the women go forth to the harvest-field and bring from thence 
new corn and fruits, which, being prepared in various dishes, and 
drink withal, is brought with solemnity to the square, where the 
people are assembled, apparelled in their new clothes and decora- 
tions. The men, having regaled themselves, the remainder is 
carried off and distributed among the families of the town. The 
women and children solace themselves in their separate families, 
and in the evening repair to the public square, where they dance, 
sing, and rejoice during the whole night, observing a proper and 
exemplary decorum. This continues three days, and the four fol- 
lowing days they receive visits, and rejoice with their friends from 
neighboring tow T ns who have purified and prepared themselves.* 

The Moscogulges allow of polygamy in the utmost latitude. 
Adultery is always punished with cropping, which is the only 
corporeal punishment amongst them ; murder, by death or out- 
lawry ; fornication, theft, and less crimes, by infamy, which pro- 
duces such repeated marks and reflections of ridicule and con- 
tempt, that it generally ends in a voluntary banishment.f 

The Moscogulges bury their dead in the earth. They dig a 
four-square deep pit under the cabin or couch which the deceased 
lay on, in his house, lining the grave with cypress bark, where they 
place the corpse in a sitting posture, as if it were alive ; depositing 
with him his gun, tomahawk, pipe, and such other matters as he 
had the greatest value for in his lifetime. His eldest wife, or the 
queen-dowager, has the second choice of his possessions, and the 
remaining effects are divided among his other wives and children. 

The Choctaws are called by the traders flats or flat-heads. 
All the males have the fore and hind part of their skulls artificially 
flattened, or compressed, by which means they have high and 
lofty foreheads, sloping backwards. These men are not so neat in 

.* This festival, in many respects, resembles that of the Natchez, and that 
which the Mexicans celebrated every fifty-two years, on the last night of their 
century. There are so many resemblances between the Indians of Mexico and 
those north of that state that they appear to indicate a common origin for the 
American Indians. 

t And in this respect of sensibility to shame and contempt incurred by crime 
they show themselves superior to some more civilized nations. 



CHAP. XXV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



267 



the trim of their heads as the Muscogulges are, and they are re- 
markably slovenly and negligent in every part of their dress, but 
otherwise they are said to be ingenious, sensible and virtuous men, 
bold and intrepid, yet quiet and peaceable, and are acknowledged 
by the Creeks to be brave. 

They are supposed to be most ingenious and industrious hus- 
bandmen, having large plantations where they employ much of 
their time in agricultural improvements, by which means their 
territory is more generally cultivated and better inhabited than any 
other Indian republic we know of. The number of their inhabi- 
tants is said greatly to exceed the whole Muscogulge confederacy, 
although their territories are not a fourth part as extensive. 

The Muscogulge language is spoken throughout the confeder- 
acy (although consisting of many nations having a speech pecu- 
liar to themselves), as also by their friends and allies, the Natchez. 
The Chickasaw and Choctaw, the Muscogulges say, are dialects of 
theirs. 

This language is very agreeable to the ear — courteous, gentle, 
and musical. The letter R is not sounded in one word of their 
language. The men's speech is strong and sonorous, but not 
harsh, and in no instance guttural, and I believe the letter R is 
not used to express any word in any language of the confeder- 
acy. The Cherokee tongue, on the contrar}^, is very loud, some- 
what rough, and very sonorous, sounding the letter R very fre- 
quently, yet very agreeable and pleasant to the ear." 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Indian Burials and Idols — Mounds, Terraces, and Avenues. 

President Jefferson, in his notes on the State of Virginia, in 
speaking of " barrows," says : " Many are to be found all over 
this country. They are of different sizes, some of them con- 
structed of earth and some of loose stones. Some have thought 
they covered the bones of those who have fallen in battles fought 
on the spot of interment. Some ascribed them to the custom, 
said to prevail among the Indians, of collecting, at certain periods, 
the bones of all their dead, wheresoever deposited at the time of their 
death. Others again supposed them the general sepulchres of 
towns conjectured to have been in or near these grounds ; and this 
opinion was supported by the quality of the lands in which they 



268 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XXV. 



are found (those constructed of earth being generally of the softest 
and most fertile meadow-grounds on river-sides), and by a tradi- 
tion, said to be handed down from the aboriginal inhabitants, 
that when they settled a town the first person who died was placed 
erect and earth put about him so as to cover and support him ; 
that when another died a narrow passage was dug to the first, the 
second reclined against him and the cover of earth replaced, and 
so on. There being one of these in my neighborhood, I wished to 
satisfy myself whether any and which of these opinions were 
just. For this purpose I determined to open and examine it 
thoroughly. It was situated on the low grounds of the Rivanna, 
about two miles above its principal fork, and opposite to some 
hills on which had been an Indian town. It was of a spheroidal 
form, of about forty feet diameter at the base, and had been of 
about twelve feet altitude, though now reduced by the plow to 
seven and a half, having been under cultivation about a dozen 
years.* Before this it was covered by trees of a foot in diameter, 
and round the base was an excavation of five feet depth and width, 
from whence the earth had been taken of which the hillock was 
formed. I first dug superficially in several parts of it, and came to 
collections of human bones at different depths from six inches to 
three feet below the surface. f These were lying in the utmost 
confusion, some vertical, some oblique, some horizontal, and di- 
rected to every point of the compass, entangled and held together 
in clusters by the earth. Bones of the most distant parts were 
found together, as, for instance, the small bones of the feet in the 
hollow of a skull. Many skulls would sometimes be in contact, 
lie on the face, on the side, on the back, top or bottom, so as, on 
the whole, to give the idea of bones emptied promiscuously from 
a bag or basket, and covered over with earth without any attention 
to their order. The skulls were so tender that they generally fell 
to pieces on being touched. The other bones were stronger. There 
were a rib and a fragment of the under-jaw of a person about half- 
grown, a rib of an infant, and a part of the jaw of a child which 
had not cut its teeth, this last furnishing the most decisive proof 
of the burial of children here. I proceeded then to make a per- 
pendicular cut through the body of the barrow, that I might ex- 

* This shows how rapidly these earthworks are reduced by cultivation, and 
consequently how soon they disappear under such circumstances, while herbage 
and forests not only protect and preserve them, but also actually increase their 
size. 

t That would make these remains about five feet to seven and a half feet below 
the original summit of the mound. 



CHAP. XXV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



269 



amine its internal structure. This passed about three feet from 
its centre, was opened to the former surface of the earth, and was 
wide enough for a man to walk through and examine its sides. 
At the bottom, that is, on the level of the circumjacent plain, I 
found bones, and above these a few stones brought from a cliff a 
quarter of a mile off, and from the river one-eighth of a mile 
off; then a, large interval of earth, then a stratum of bones, 
and so on.* At one end of the section were four strata of 
bones plainly distinguishable, at the other three, the strata in 
one part not ranging with those in another. The bones nearest 
the surface were least decayed. No holes were discovered in any 
of them as if made by bullets, arrows or other weapon. I conjec- 
tured that in this barrow r might have been one thousand skeletons. 
Appearances certainly indicate that it has derived both origin and 
growth from the accustomary collection of bones and deposition 
of them together.f 

But on whatever occasion they may have been made, they are 
of considerable notoriety among the Indians ; for a party passing, 
about thirty years ago, through the part of the country where this 
barrow is, went through the woods directly to it, without any in- 
struction or inquiry, and having staid about it some time, with 
expressions which were construed to be those of sorrow, they re- 
turned to the high road, which they had left about six miles, to 
pay this visit, and pursued their journey. There is another bar- 
row, much resembling this, in the low grounds of the south branch 
of the Shenandoah where it is crossed by the road leading from 
Rockfish gap to Staunton. Both of these having within these 
dozen years been cleared of their trees, and put under cultivation, 
are much reduced in their height, and spread in width by the 
plough, and will probably disappear in time. There is another on 
a hill in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a few miles north of Wood's 
gap, which is made up of small stones thrown together. This has 
been opened and found to contain human bones, as the others do. 
There are also many others in different parts of the country. 1 ' 

Bartram gives the following account of the manner in which the 
Choctaws dispose of their dead : " As soon as a person is dead, 

* It is probable that the remains covered with stones were those of the per- 
son to whom the " large" heap of earth above them was erected, and that the 
mound was converted by the Indians into a burial-place without any knowledge 
of its contents. 

t This verifies the conjecture that the bones deposited in temples and on scaf- 
folds, as in Florida, among the Choctaws, etc., are at intervals of time, accord- 
ingly as they accumulate, thus disposed of. 



270 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXV. 



they erect a scaffold eighteen or twenty feet high, in a grove ad- 
jacent to the town, where they lay the corpse tightly covered with 
a mantle ; here it is suffered to remain, visited and protected by 
the friends and relations, until the flesh becomes putrid, so as 
easily to part from the bones; then undertakers, who make it their 
business, carefully strip the flesh from the bones, wash and cleanse 
them, and, when dry, purify by the air ; having provided a curi- 
ously wrought chest or coffin, fabricated of bones and splints, they 
place all the bones therein; it is then deposited in the bone-house, 
a building erected for that purpose in every town. And when this 
house is full, a general solemn funeral takes place ; the nearest kin- 
dred or friends of the deceased on a day appointed repair to the 
bone-house, take up their respective coffins, and following one an- 
other in order of seniority, the nearest relations and connections 
attending their respective corpse, and the multitude following after 
them, all as one family, with united voice of alternate alleluj ah and 
lamentation, slowly proceed to the place of general interments, 
where they place the coffins in order, forming a pyramid, and lastly 
cover all over with earth, which raises a conical hill or mount. 
Then they return in order of solemn procession, concluding the 
day with a festival which is called the feast of the dead." 

In one of the earliest accounts of Virginia is the following : " In 
the same township they had places of devotion as well as of feast- 
ing. The idol they worshipped, called Kiwasa, was carved out of 
wood, about four feet high, and seemed to be copied from the 
Floridian idols. The head was of a flesh-color, the breast white, 
and all the rest of the body black. It was placed at Secota, in the 
sepulchre of the deceased princes, but we do not find that the na- 
tives were originally impressed with any_ great degree of devotion 
towards it, for it remained in the tomb as an object of terror rather 
than of worship. In other repositories, two, and sometimes four 
or more of these idols were placed for the same purpose, but all of 
them in the darkest part of the building, to give them the more 
tremendous appearance.* As to the temple or sepulchre, it was no 
other than a scaffolding raised upon poles some ten feet from the 

* One of the Indian chiefs of Virginia, carrying an idol with his forces, at- 
tacked Smith's men ; the Indians were defeated and the idol captured. Smith 
made them pay dearly for its restoration. 

In the life of the Duke of Berwick, it is related that a Portuguese army hav- 
ing entered a stream, in approaching to attack a fort, confusion was observed in 
their column, and that it was caused by a cannon-ball having carried away the 
head of the image of a saint which the Portuguese carried at the head of the col- 
umn. The result was that the Portuguese retreated in disorder. 



CHAP. XXV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



271 



ground, covered with mattings upon which they laid the hodies after 
they had been carefully emboweled, and the skin and flesh scraped 
from the bones. The flesh with the bowels they wrapped up in 
mats, and placed at the feet of the skeletons, but they had an art 
of covering the skeleton with skins so artfully stuffed that it re- 
tained the appearance of the complete body.* Below the scaffold- 
ing the priests had their habitations upon the skins of wild beasts, 
and they were employed in mumbling prayers and in guarding 
the sepulchre." 

Garcelasso mentions a similar custom among the Florida Indi- 
ans, in 1527. Ortis, one of four Spaniards who were inveigled into 
the power of a Floridian chief, was ordered by this chief ' ; to guard, 
day and night, the dead bodies of the inhabitants of the village. 
These bodies were in the midst of a forest, in coffins of wood, cov- 
ered with boards which were not fastened but retained only by the 
weight of some stones, or of some pieces of wood which were 
placed upon them." 

Though in the last two accounts of the disposal of the dead, that 
of the dead in Virginia, and that of the dead in Florida, it is not 
stated what final disposition was made of the bones, yet, consider- 
ing the great accumulation of them in time, it is probable that they 
were finally deposited as those of the Choctaws, as related by Bar- 
tram. 

" In the provinces of Tatabe and Guaca. near Antioquia, on the 
western branch of the river Magdalena, in South America, when 
one of the chiefs dies the people mourn for him for many days, 
cut off the hair of his wives, kill those who were most beloved, 
and raise a tomb the size of a small hill, with an opening towards 
the rising sun. Within this great tomb they made a large vault, 
and here they put the body, wrapped in cloths, and the gold and 
arms the dead man had used when living. They then take the 
most beautiful of his wives and some servant-lads, make them 
drunk with the wine made of maize, and bury them alive in the 
vault, in order that the chief may go down to hell with his com- 
panions. 

* It is worthy of notice that Garcelasso, in his description of the Temple of 
Talemeco (which appears a fiction), says : "At the base of the walls there were 
wooden benches, very well worked, where are placed the coffins of the lords of 
the provinces and their families. Two feet above these coffins, in the niches of 
the wall, are seen the statues of the persons who are buried there." Among 
several tribes of South America, the skins of men were used as stated in the text, 
and the image preserved suspended from a beam of a house. So Ciezar de Leon 
relates, 



272 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXV. 



In ancient times there was a great population in these valleys, 
as we judge from the edifices and burial-places, of which there are 
many well worth seeing, being so large as to appear like small 
hills.* 

When Guachoia believed that Soto was dead, as he really was, 
though the Indians were told otherwise, he commanded two young, 
well-proportioned Indians to be brought to Moscoso (commander 
after the death of De Soto), and said that the usage of that coun- 
try was when any lord died to kill Indians, to wait upon him and 
serve him by the way, and for that purpose by his commandment 
were these sent to him, and prayed Moscoso to command them to 
be beheaded, that they might attend and serve his lord and brother 
Soto. Moscoso refused to do this, and requested him to command 
the Indians to be loosened and not to use any such custom thence- 
forth. Straightway Guachoia commanded them to be loosened and 
to get them home."f 

Bartram thus speaks of the graves of the Yamasees : 

" It was quite dark before I came to a bluff, which I had in view 
a long time over an extensive point of meadows. I landed, how- 
ever, at last. This was a high, perpendicular bluff, fronting more 
than a hundred yards on the river (St. John), the earth black, 
loose, and fertile. It is composed of river-shells, sand, etc. At 
the back of it were open pine forests and savannas. When I 
landed it was quite dark, and, in collecting wood for my fire, 
strolling in the dark about the groves, I found the surface of the 
ground very uneven by means of little mounds and ridges. In 
the morning I found I had taken up my lodgings on the borders 
of an ancient burying-ground, containing sepulchres and tumuli 
of the Yamasees, who were here slain by the Creeks in the last 
decisive battle, the Creeks having driven them into this point be- 
tween the doubling of the river, where few of them escaped the 
fury of the conquerors. These graves occupied the whole grove, 
consisting of three acres of ground. There were nearly thirty of 
these cemeteries of the dead, nearly of an equal size and form, 
being oblong, twenty feet in length, and ten or twelve feet in width, 
and three or four feet high, now overgrown with orange trees, live 
oaks, laurel, magnolias, red bay, and other trees and shrubs, com- 
posing dark and solemn shades. 

These tumuli might indicate an ancient cemetery of the Yama- 
sees, or of some ancient people who inhabited Florida. But if the 
Yamasees were here exterminated by the Creeks, it is not probable 



Ciezar de Leon. 



f Garcilasso's " Conquest of Florida." 



CHAP. XXV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



273 



that the latter would have been so considerate as to raise these 
mounds over the remains of their enemies. 

The pyramidal hills or artificial mounds and highways or 
avenues leading from them to artificial lakes or ponds, vast 
tetragon terraces, chunk-yards,* and obelisks or pillars of wood, 
are the only monuments of labor, ingenuity, and magnificence that 
I have seen worthy of notice or remark. The region lying between 
the Savannah River and the Ockmulgee, east and west, and from 
the sea-coast to the Cherokee or Appalachian Mountains, north and 
south, is the most remarkable for these high conical hills, tetragon 
terraces, and chunk-yards. This region was possessed by the Cher- 
okees since the arrival of the Europeans, but they were afterwards 
dispossessed by the Muscogulges, and all that country was, prob- 
ably many ages preceding the Cherokee invasion, inhabited by 
one nation or confederacy, who were ruled by the same system 
of laws, customs, and language, but so ancient that the Cherokees, 
Creeks, and the nation they conquered, could render no account 
for what purpose these mounds were raised. The mounds, and 
cubical yards adjoining them, are always so situated as to com- 
mand the most extensive prospect over the town and country 
adjacent. The tetragon terraces seem to be the foundation of a 
fortress, and, perhaps, the great pyramidal mounds served the 
purpose of lookout-towers and high places of sacrifice. The 
sunken area, called by white traders the chunk-yard, very likely 
served the same conveniency that has been appropriated to it by 
the more modern and even present nations of Indians — that is, 
the place where they burnt and otherwise tortured the unhappy 
captives that were condemned to die, as the area is surrounded 
by a bank, and sometimes two of them, one behind and above 
the other, as seats, to accommodate the spectators at such tragical 
scenes, as well as the exhibition of games, shows, and dances. 
From the river St. Juan (St. John) southerly to the point of the 
peninsula of Florida are to be seen high pyramidal mounds, with 
spacious and extensive avenues leading from them out of the town 
to an artificial lake or pond of water. 

The great mounds, highways, and artificial lakes up St. Juan, 
on the east shore, just at the entrance to the great Lake George, 
one on the opposite shore, on the bank of the Little Lake, another 
on Dunn Island, a little below Charlotte ville ; one on a large 

* "Chunk-yard, a term given by the white traders to the oblong, four-square 
yards adjoining the high mounts and rotundas of the modern Indians. In the 
centre of these stands the obelisk, and at each corner of the farther end stands 
a slave-post or strong stake, where the captives that are burnt alive are bound."' 

18 



274 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXV. 



beautiful island just without the Cape George, in sight of Mount 
Royal, and a spacious one on the west bank of the Mosquito 
river, near New Smyrna, are the most remarkable of this sort that 
occur to me. But undoubtedly many more are yet to be discov- 
ered farther south in the peninsula. However, I observed none 
westward, after I left St. Juan, on my journey to little St. Juan, 
near the bay of Apalache. 

But in all the region of the Muscogulge country, southwest 
from the Ockmulgee River, quite to the Tallapoosa, down to the 
city of Mobile, and thence along the sea-shore to the Mississippi, 
I saw no sign of mounds or highways, except at Taensa, where 
were several inconsiderable conical mounds, and but one instance 
of the tetragon terraces, which was at the Apalachucla old town, 
on the west bank of that river. Here were yet remaining con- 
spicuous monuments as vast four square terraces, chunk-yards, 
and almost equalling those eminent ones at the Ockmulgee fields, 
but no high conical mounds. These Indians have a tradition that 
these remains are the ruins of an ancient Indian town and fortress. 
I was not in the interior parts of the Choctaw territories, and there- 
fore am ignorant whether there are any mounds or monuments 
there. 

To conclude this subject concerning the monuments of the 
Americans, I deem it necessary to observe as my opinion, that 
none of them that I have seen discover the least signs of the arts, 
sciences, or architecture of the Europeans or other inhabitants of 
the Old World, }^et evidently betray every sign or mark of the 
most distant antiquity."* 

Laudonnier visited the Florida peninsula in 1564. In his ac- 
count of his expedition he says : I sent my two barks to discover 
along the river and up towards the head (Lake George) thereof, 
which went so far up that they were thirty leagues good beyond 
a place named Mathiaqua, and there they discovered the entrance 
of a lake, upon the one side whereof no land could be seen, ac- 
cording to the report of the Indians, who had oftentimes climbed 
on the highest trees in the country to see land, and notwithstand- 
ing could not discover any, which was the cause why my men 

* Bartram. On the maps of Florida are marked several large mounds, nearly 
as low down as the latitude of the Calloocahatche River. At St. Petersburg, on 
Tampa Bay, are two very large shell mounds, probably thirty -five feet in height ; 
two others about half this height, and one, which appears to be very old, 
medium height, about seventy yards south of those mentioned, and apparently 
almost entirely of sand, while the others are wholly of oyster-shells. The shell 
mounds are symmetrical cones. 



CHAP. XXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



275 



went no further, but returned back, and in coming home went to 
see the Island of Edelano, situated in the midst of the river— as fair 
a place as any that may be seen through the world, for in the space 
of some three leagues, that it may contain in length and breadth, 
a man may see an exceedingly rich country, and marvellously 
peopled. At the coming out of the village of Edelano to go unto 
the river's side, a man must pass through an alley about three hun- 
dred paces long and fifty paces broad, on both sides whereof great 
trees are planted, the boughs whereof are tied together like an 
arch, and meet together so artificially that a man would think it 
were an arbor made of purpose, as fair, I say, as any in all Chris- 
tendom, although it be all natural. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Effigy Mounds — The Mounds of Wisconsin — The Elephant Mound — Elephants' 
Skeletons at Big Bone Lick in 1735. 

In the vicinity of the Great Lakes and in the States of Wiscon- 
sin, Iowa, Michigan and Missouri these constructions (tumuli) are 
made of earth, of conic shape, or are in the form of animals, 
birds, reptiles, and even in that of men. In the interior of these 
monuments relics of art have been discovered belonging to a very 
ancient period, and consisting of personal ornaments, domestic 
utensils, or articles connected with religious worship made of dif- 
ferent metals or of pietra dura. 

The antiquities of the South are remarkable for the great regu- 
larity of their structure and their extraordinary size. They have 
accordingly been looked upon as the work of a different nation 
and of a different epoch. These mounds are composed of several 
stories, and have some resemblance to the Mexican Teocallis, 
owing to their pyramidal shape, their dimensions, their spacious 
terraces, lofty passages, and long avenues. They are found in 
large numbers all over the country from Florida to Texas. 
Smaller hillocks placed at regular intervals often surround the 
larger ones. Some have paths winding round them from the 
base to the summit, others have gigantic steps like slopes in Euro- 
pean fortresses. 

In the northwestern part of the United States the tumuli are 
of a different character from those of the north and the south. 
These earthworks of the northwest are mostly in the form of cay- 



276 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVI. 



mans, serpents, buffaloes, and some other animals ; frequently 
they represent figures of men. The colossal effigies are found on 
undulating meadows, together with artificial conical hillocks, and 
sometimes with enclosure walls. These singular monuments can 
more frequently be seen in the southern counties of Wisconsin : 
some also are seen in the Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, to 
the east of Fond du Lac, near Milwaukee, Lake Winnebago, and 
Lake Michigan, over an extent of more than one hundred and 
forty-eight miles in length and sixty in breadth. The Indian road 
called the Great War Path, which extends from Lake Michigan to 
the Mississippi, bending over the Prairie du Chien, divides in two 
this line of earthworks, the origin and destination of which are 
shrouded in mystery. 

These species of hillocks are smaller than in the rest of the 
American continent. They are seldom single, but generally in a 
line, or clustered in groups. Their height is by no means propor- 
tionate to their other dimensions, varying between eighteen inches 
and six feet. In the county of Dade (State of Wisconsin) is to be 
seen a row of these mounds representing a herd of quadrupeds, 
probably buffaloes, each thirty-rive yards in length. A human 
figure forty-eight yards long, with its legs apart, is distinguishable 
in another place. Such groups are very common the whole length 
of the above-mentioned road. Human bones evidently of great 
antiquity have been found in them.* 

The following from an article by Rev. Stephen D. Peet, pub- 
lished in the Wisconsin Historical Collection, will give an idea of 
effigy mounds found in the State of Wisconsin : 

" In the years 1849-50, about the time the territory became a 
State, Dr. J. A. Lapham, who was an early settler, became inter- 
ested in these mounds, and having prepared a volume upon the 
history and topography of the State, he also prepared a report of 
these ancient works, which was published in the fourth volume 
of the Smithsonian Contributions. It is a remarkable fact that 
the large majority of these works were situated on the natural 
lines of travel, and at those prominent places which first attracted 
the attention of settlers. Many of them have since been obliter- 
ated, and the progress of civilization has served to hide them from 
notice. 

There is a sense of satisfaction in perpetuating this record, for 
the strongest and dearest associations of the prehistoric race were 
evidently clustered about these very monuments. Not only were 
tribal names and tribal signs embodied in them, but social cus- 

* Domineche. 



CHAP. XXVI. J 



OF AMERICA. 



277 



toms and religious rites were connected with them. Thus pre- 
serving these shapes we not only preserve the divinities, which 
were very sacred to the prehistoric race, but we preserve also the 
symbols which will help us better to understand the primitive so- 
ciety and customs which prevailed here. 

A strange superstition seems to have fixed upon these animal 
shapes to make divinities of them. 

In considering these figures there are two or three divisions of 
them ; first, those representing inanimate objects, such as weapons, 
badges, and various emblems which were familiar to the native 
races ; second, animal effigies as such, using the word animal in 
the peculiar sense of four-footed beasts, and all creatures inhabit- 
ing the water or land belonging to the order of mammalia ; third, 
the effigies of birds and winged creatures. Another division might 
also be added and made to include fishes, reptiles, and such creat- 
ures as have neither wings nor legs.* 

The animals represented belong to all the different kingdoms. 
Of four-footed beasts we have the effigies of ruminant or grazing 
creatures, like the buffalo, deer, and elk. Also beasts of prey, 
such as the wolf, the fox, the bear, panther and wild-cat, and the 
various fur-bearing animals, such as the weasel, the beaver, the 
badger, skunk, and raccoon. Of rodents we find squirrels, musk- 
rats, hares, and rabbits. Of birds we find mainly the large and 
more common varieties, such as the wild goose, loon, crane, bit- 
tern, sand-hill crane, and the eagle. Of the smaller birds we find 
many specimens of the hawk, pigeon, snipe, duck, night-hawk, 
and owl. Of the reptiles, turtles are the most numerous, and there 
seems to be a great variety of these represented. Lizards also are 
common, snakes of various kinds ; and of the batrachia, frogs, 
toads, and salamanders. Of the fishes, perch, pickerel, catfish, 
and bass. These animals are found associated closely together, 
without regard to their order or species, but only according to 
their familiarity or commonness. Their effigies are frequently 
grouped together on the banks of lakes." f 

But the most notable one is an eminence near the highway 
between Williams Bay on Geneva Lake and the head of Duck 

* "The Egyptian deities are innumerable. There were countless gods in 
heaven, and below the earth. Every town and village had its local patron. 
Every month of the year, every day of the month, every hour of the day had its 
presiding deity." — P. Le Page Renouf. 

The serpent effigy was worshipped in Scotland, India, and America. The 
Egyptians had various animal deities — the bull, the dog, the cat, the ibis, the 
crocodile, etc. f Peet. 



278 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVI. 



Lake, overlooking both. This is in the form of a bow and arrow. 
The span of the bow is about fifty feet across, which has the arrow 
of corresponding size aimed for a discharge into the Geneva Lake. 
The idea is truly conceived and executed. In this mound speci- 
mens of Indian pottery have been found. 

In reference to the elephant mound, we can say nothing from 
personal observation. The first one to call attention to this pecu- 
liar effigy was Mr. Jared Warner, who says : " The mound has 
been known here for the past twenty-five years as the Elephant 
mound." His account of it was published in the Smithsonian 
Report for 1872. It is situated in the high sandy bottom-lands of 
the Mississippi, on the east side, about eight miles below the 
mouth of the Wisconsin River, is in a shallow valley, and only 
about eight feet above high water, yet it is so situated as always 
to escape the floods. Its total length is one hundred and thirty- 
five feet; its width from hind-feet to back sixty feet; from fore-feet 
to back, sixty-six feet; from end of proboscis to neck or throat, 
thirty-one feet; from end of proboscis to fore-legs, thirty-nine 
feet; from fore-legs to hind-legs, fifty-one feet; across fore-legs, 
twenty-one feet ; across hind-legs, twenty-four feet ; across body, 
thirty-six feet; general height (above the natural surface), five feet. 

The late Moses Strong, of our State Geological Survey, described 
it in 1876, and says : — " It resembles an elephant much more 
closely than any other animal, and the resemblance is much more 
perfect in this than in any other effigies." 

Dr. J. S. Phene visited it during his tour through the State, and 
does not hesitate to call it an elephant mound. He also visited a 
mound north of Prairie du Chien, which he thinks is an effigy of 
a camel. It is situated in a ravine which goes by the name of 
Camel Coolie, the name of the gulch being taken from the camel 
shape of the mound. We give this account as furnished by Dr. 
Phene himself.* 

* Though there are remains of the mastodon, the elephant, the rhinoceros 
and the camel in North America, yet could these mounds have been erected 
during the existence of these animals? On the ICth of November, in the year 
1756, Captain Bossu wrote the following: " There arrived here yesterday an 
express despatched from Fort du Quesne to our Commandant, by which we learn 
that the English make great preparations to return to attack this post. Macarty 
has sent a convoy of provisions to revictual the fort. The Chevalier de Villiers 
commands it in my place, my bad health not permitting me to undertake the 
journey. It would have enabled me to examine on the road the place where a 
savage found some elephants' teeth, of which he gave me a molar, which 
weighed about six and a half pounds. 

In 1735, the Canadians (Indians) who came to make war on the Chickasaws 



CHAP. XXVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



279 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

James G. Swan's Account of the Chenooks and Chehalis of " The Northwest 
Coast" of the United States — The Antiquity of the American Continent — 
How Long Inhabited by Man — Origin of the Human Kace — The Jargon 
Language — Peculiarities of Indian Pronunciation. 

James G. Swan, who resided three years in Washington Terri- 
tory, published in 1857 " The Northwest Coast," in which he thus 
speaks of the Indians of that territory : — " Of the early history of 
the Chenook or Chehalis tribe nothing possibly can be known 
with certainty. Like all the rest of the North American Indians, 
they have no written legends or any other relics of antiquity. A 
few hieroglyphics, rudely carved on cedar slabs, are the only 
records I have met with, and these were only the Totems or 
Tomanawos of individual chiefs or doctors, and served rather, 
like the inscriptions on our grave-stones, to perpetuate the memory 
of the deceased, than to give, or attempt to give, any historical 
information. 

All that we learn of the early history of these aborigines comes 
to us in the shadowy form of myths and allegories, and traditions 
related hy the old. This is but poor authority for events that 
have transpired centuries ago, and we are only left to speculative 
theories to help us form what, from its very uncertainty, must be 
but a faint glimmering of the truth. 

The tale of the origin of mankind, or rather of their tribe, for 
the Chenook and Chehalis appear to have the same account, was 
related to me several times by different Indians, but they did not 
agree together in detail. 

This allegorical tale, if it means anything, would seem to refer 
to the coming of their ancestors from California or Mexico. But 
the Mexican traditions, on the contrary, continually refer to the 
fact of their ancestors coming from the north. 

Some writers have asserted that the Indians are the lost tribes 
of Israel ; others that they came over from the Asiatic shores and 
from China ; some that they found their way around by the north - 

found in the vicinity of the Ohio River the skeletons of seven elephants. These elephants 
were apparently found in a marshy land, where the enormous mass of their 
bodies having caused them to sink to their belly, had forced them to remain." 
This is probably the first notice of the " Big Bone Lick" of Kentucky, about 
twenty-five miles from Cincinnati. Croghan visited it about 1764. 



280 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVII. 



west, either by crossing Behring Strait and proceeding gradually 
down the mainland, or coming directly across from the north- 
western shore of Asia in canoes or ancient vessels, similar to the 
Japanese and Chinese junks. 

Other and more modern writers consider that these Indians came 
from the east of the Rocky Mountains, being forced away from the 
buffalo region by their more formidable neighbors. Of this latter 
class is General George Gibbs, who for many years has devoted 
himself to ethnological researches among the North American In- 
dians, and who for the past six years has resided in Oregon and 
Washington Territories. General Gibbs, in a letter to me, dated 
Fort Steilacoom, Washington Territory, July 31, 1856, writes : ' In 
reading Longfellow's " Hiawatha " I find some startling resem- 
blances to the Nisqually and Klikatal tales, so much so as to con- 
firm the belief I already entertained of all these tribes having origi- 
nated east of the Rocky Mountains, in the buffalo country, and 
emigrated by the northern passes to the great western basin, and 
thence down the Frazer's River and the Columbia to their present 
homes, forced away by more powerful neighbors.' 

There is, however, no disputing the fact that they have occasion- 
ally received additions from the Asiatic side, although to what 
extent is not known. The prevailing northwest trade-winds of the 
summer season renders it very easy for canoes to come over from 
the northeastern Russian coast; and in evidence of that fact I can 
state that during my residence in the territory, a canoe with three 
sailors in it, who ran away from a vessel at Kodiac, arrived safe at 
Shoalwater Bay, after coming a distance of nearly eight hundred 
miles. 

There is also a tradition among the Indians that a Chinese or 
Japanese junk was wrecked years ago on Clatsop Beach, south 
of the Columbia, part of the cargo being beeswax. And to 
prove the correctness of this tradition, there are to this day, occa- 
sionally, after great storms, lumps and pieces of this wax found 
on the beach.* I have had some of this wax given me by an old 
Indian doctor, who had picked it up on the beach. The crevices 
were still full of sand, and the action of salt water and the sun had 
bleached it nearly white. Wilkes also mentions the fact of a Chi- 
nese junk having been wrecked at Point Greenville in 1833, and 
three of the Japanese were rescued from the Indians by the Hud- 
son Bay Company. 

These instances simply prove that communication between the 
two shores of the North Pacific could be, and has been, made, but 

* " There are no wild honey-bees west of the Kocky Mountains." — Swan. 



CHAP. XXVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



281 



show nothing further. My own belief is that, whatever was the 
origin of different tribes or families, the whole race of American 
Indians are native and indigenous to the soil. There is no proof 
that they are either the lost tribes of Israel, or emigrants from any 
part of the Old World. They are a separate and as distinct a race 
as either the Ethiopian, Caucasian, or Mongolian. 

In the absence of all proof to the contrary, it seems to me to be 
both rational and consistent to assume that the Creator placed the 
Red race on the American continent as early as he created the 
beasts and reptiles that inhabit it." In Nott and Gliddon's " Types 
of Mankind " may be found the following : 

" The Continent of America is often designated by the appella- 
tion of the New World, but the researches of modern geologists and 
archaeologists have shown that the evidences in favor of a higher 
antiquity, during our geological epoch, as well as for fauna and 
flora, are, to say the least, quite as great on this as on the Eastern 
hemisphere. Professor Agassiz tells us that geology finds the old- 
est landmarks here ; and Sir Charles Lyell, from a mass of well- 
digested facts, and from the corroborating testimony of other good 
authorities, concludes that the Mississippi River has been running 
in its present bed for more than one hundred thousand years."* 

Dr. Dowler, of New Orleans, supplies some extraordinary facts 
in confirmation of the great age of the Delta of the Mississippi, 
assumed by Lyell, Carpenter, Forshey and others. From an in- 
vestigation of the successive growths of cypress forests around that 
city, the stumps of which are still found at different depths di- 
rectly overlying each other ; from the great size and age of these 
trees, and from the remains of Indian bones and pottery found be- 
low the roots of some of the stumps, he arrives at the following 
conclusions : From these data it appears that the human race ex- 
isted in the Delta more than fifty-seven thousand years ago, and 
that ten subterranean forests, and the one now growing, will show 
that an exuberant flora existed in Louisiana more than one 

* The Mississippi, between the mouth of the Ked Kiver, latitude 31° N., 
and the mouth of the Ohio River, nearly latitude 38° N., changes its bed in 
about every hundred years. The first cut-off I remember to have taken place 
was the "Needham," which occurred about 1828, or a year or so later, while 
there are records of the following, which happened before, viz. : False River, 
Homachette, Yazoo, all great cut-offs ; besides these there are a number that oc- 
curred previously, not known when ; some of the largest of which are Old River 
Lake, Grand Lake, Lake Washington, Lake Lafayette, Lake Providence, three 
lakes in Tensas Parish, La., Lake Concordia, etc. Probably the celebrated 
geologist considered the alluvium of the Mississippi as its bed, which, in fact, it 
is, but it often changes sides in it. 



282 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVII. 



hundred thousand years anterior to these evidences of man's 
existence. 

These authorities in support of the extreme age of the geological 
era to which man belongs are not simply the opinions of the few, 
but such conclusions are substantially adopted by the leading 
geologists everywhere. The rapid accumulation of new facts is 
fast familiarizing the minds of the scientific world to this convic- 
tion.* 

Now the question naturally springs up, whether the aborigines of 
America were not cotemporary with the earliest races known to 
us on the Eastern continent. 

If, as is conceded, Caucasian, Negro, Mongul, and other races, 
existed in the Old World already distinct, what reason can be as- 
signed to show that the aborigines of America did not also exist 
five thousand years ago? The naturalist must infer that the 
fauna and flora of the two continents were cotemporary. All 
facts, all analogies, were against the supposition that America 
should be left by the Creator a dreary waste for thousands of years, 
while the other half of the world was teeming with organized be- 
ings. This view is also strengthened by the acknowledged fact 
that not a single animal, bird, reptile, fish, or plant, is common to 
the Old and New Worlds.f No naturalist of our day doubts that 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms of America were created where 
the}' are found, and not in Asia. 

The races of men alone have been made an exception to this 

* There may be mentioned as among these "new facts" the remains of a fire 
found seventeen feet below the apex of the "High Kock," which gave name to 
one of the springs of Saratoga, New York, described in a book entitled ' ' Sara- 
toga and How to See It," by Dr. R,. F. Dearborn. There was a similar discov- 
ery in digging the Louisville and Portland Canal in Kentucky. 

f Whales inhabit the Indian Ocean and the Arctic. It is but thirty-six miles 
from Asia to America, no great flight for a land-bird, while the range of sea- 
birds extends to the limits of the continents. The manitee is — or was — found in 
Brazil and in Behring Strait. From this one may believe that there are both 
birds and fishes common to both hemispheres ; but how it was originally it would 
be difficult to decide ; but does not the fossil remains of plants and animals con- 
firm it? Meyers, in his "Remains of Lost Empires," says: "The flora of the 
Mesopotamian plains are very similar to our own. Upon one short excursion 
we gathered twenty species, all of which belonged to genera familiar to us, and 
five were identical with American home species. ' ' The same author, in speaking of 
the Valley of Cashmere, says: "The flora of the valley forms a striking simi- 
larity to our northern series of plants ; many of the species are identical with the spe- 
cies making up the flora of Neiv England." 

Behring Strait, which separates Asia from America, in its narrowest part is 
thirty-six miles in width, with islands between the two continents. 



CHAP. XXVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



283 



general law, but this exception cannot be maintained by any course 
of scientific reasoning. 

Morton and Agassiz assume that all mankind did not spring 
from one pair, or even each race from distinct pairs, but that men 
were created in nations in the different zoological provinces where 
Jristory first finds them. Niebuhr also expresses the same views in 
one of his letters. He writes: " I believe, further, that the origin 
of the human race is not connected with any given place, but is 
to be sought everywhere over the face of the earth, and that it is 
an idea more worthy the power and wisdom of the Creator to 
assume that He gave to each zone and climate its proper inhabi- 
tants, to whom that climate and zone would be most suitable, than 
to assume that the human race has degenerated in such innumer- 
able instances."* 

All the tribes (some twenty-five) of the territory (Washington) 
speak a tongue which, though sounding the same to unpractised 
ears, is very different when understood, and even tribes so nearly 
connected as the Chenooks, Chehalis, and Queniults, being only a 
few miles distant from each other, yet members of the one cannot 
understand the language of the other. Still there are individuals 
of each who, from a roving, trading disposition, have become 
familiar with each other's tongue, and can usually make them- 
selves understood. The Chehalis language is that most usually 
spoken at present; for the ancient Chenook is such a guttural, 
difficult tongue that many of the young Chenook Indians cannot 
speak it, but have been taught by their parents the Chehalis lan- 
guage and the Jargon. The Jargon is the medium with which the 
Indians hold intercourse with each other and with the whites, and 
is composed of the Chenook, French, and English languages. The 
first mention I have seen made of this Jargon is in " Meares's Voy- 
ages in 1788." 

The Jargon is interesting as showing how a language can be 
formed. The words of three distinct languages — the French, Eng- 
lish, and Indian — are made to form a separate and distinct tongue. 
It is a language, however, never used except when Indians and 
whites are conversing, or by two distant tribes who do not under- 
stand each other. The Indians speaking the same language no 
more think of using the Jargon while talking together than the 
Americans do. 

It is a language confined wholly, I believe, to our northwestern 

* It is evident that the Creator so made man that he could adapt himself to 
all conditions of climate ; and men have done so from the Arctic to the Antarctic 
circles. Necessity in every instance compelled them to do so. 



284 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVII. 



possessions west of the Rocky Mountains. It originated in the 
roving, trading spirit of the tribes, and has been added to and in- 
creased since the introduction of the whites among them. 

Of the origin of the languages of the different tribes it is im- 
possible even to conjecture, but it certainly seems to me that if, 
as has been alleged, these tribes did come from Asia, there would 
have been some similarity in the languages by which they could 
be traced. 

Among the Chehalis Indians, and even among the Chenooks, 
are found words occasionally strikingly resembling those of some 
foreign country. Connath inisku, an expression of derision, which 
is something similar to the remark, You are stupid or half-drunk, 
is certainly very similar in appearance and sound to Irish words, 
but it must be poor evidence by which to prove that the Indians 
were originally Irish. But I believe there are more Irish-sound- 
ing words in the Chehalis language than there are Hebrew; and, 
so far as any sound of words go, it is as easy to prove their descent 
from the Irish as it is from the lost tribes of Israel. 

As early as 1819 Mr. Duponceau advanced the following : " That 
the American languages in general are rich in words and gram- 
matical forms, and that in their complicated construction the 
greatest order, method, and regularity prevailed ; that these com- 
plicated forms, which he calls poly nth enic, appear to exist in all 
the languages from Greenland to Cape Horn,* and that these 
forms differ essentially from those of the ancient and modern 
languages of the old hemisphere." 

Gliddon remarks : " The type of a race would never change if 
kept from adulterations, as may be seen in the case of the Jews 
and other people. So with languages ; we have no reason to be- 
lieve that a race would ever lose its language if kept aloof from 
foreign influence. It is a fact that in the island of Great Britain 
the Welsh and Erse are still spoken, although for two thousand 
years pressed upon by the strongest influences tending to exter- 
minate a tongue. So with the Basque in France, which can be 
traced back at least three thousand years and is still spoken. 
Coptic was the language of Egypt for at least five thousand years, 
and still leaves its traces in the languages around. The Chinese 
has existed equally as long, and is still undisturbed. 

Wherever the Jews, or the Chinese, or the Gipsies, or Negroes, 
have wandered from one part of the world to the other they have, 
either in general appearance or in language, retained a separate 

* It would be interesting to know the number of languages between Cape 
Horn and Greenland and the philologist who is familiar with them. 



CHAP. XXVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



285 



and distinct position ; and it is but natural to conclude that if the 
American Indians had come from Asia they would certainly have 
retained something, either in language or appearance, like the 
tribes of the Old World. 

Leaving what must, to us, remain always an uncertainty as to 
the origin of the Indian language, and descending to the practi- 
cal, or language of the present, as we find it, the most casual 
observer must be struck with the great similarity in the endings 
of many of the Chehalis words with the Mexican or Aztec tl; as, 
for instance, aquail-shiltl, the north wind ; parlam-shiltl, raspberry ; 
joquitl, get up ; shooks-quitl, to-day ; se-cartl, spruce ; sheo-quintl, cedar ; 
sartl, two, etc. 

That the northern tribes, or those of Oregon and Washington, 
have been accustomed to long journeys south, is a fact which is 
easily shown. When Fremont first commenced hostilities in Cali-' 
fornia a large body of Walla-Walla Indians from Columbia were 
creating disturbances in the region of Sacramento. These Indians 
formerly made regular excursions to the south every year, on horse- 
back, for the purpose of trade or plunder. 

The wife of Mr. Ducheney, the agent at Chenook for the Hud- 
son Bay Company, who is a very intelligent woman, informed me 
that her father was a Frenchman and her mother a Walla- Walla 
Indian, and that when she was quite a child she recollected going 
with her mother and a party of her tribe to the south for a num- 
ber of months, and that they were three months going and three 
months returning ; that they took horses w T ith them and Indian 
trinkets, which they exchanged for vermilion and Mexican 
blankets; and that on their return their mother died, and was 
buried where the city of Sacramento now stands. I asked her 
how she knew where Sacramento was, and she replied that some 
of her friends had since gone to California, to the gold-mines, and 
that on their return they said that it was at Sacramento where her 
mother was buried. 

She was too young to remember how far into Mexico they went, 
but I judged the vermilion she mentioned was obtained from the 
mountains of Almaden, near San Jose, California. But I have no 
reason to doubt the statement, as I have heard similar statements 
from other sources. These facts would seem to give weight to the 
supposition that at some time or other the Mexican Indians had 
been among the northern tribes. Or it may be considered, on the 
other hand, by those who believe in a northwestern exodus from 
Asia, as a proof that, as the Mexican ending tl is found among the 
tribes still further north, the Mexicans themselves originated in 
that quarter. 



286 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVIII. 



Man} 7 words of English origin in the Jargon are dressed in an 
Indian phraseology simpty by using the letter L instead of R. The 
reason is that the Indians cannot sound R when used as the com- 
mencement of a word. Thus, for instance, rice is pronounced lice: 
rope, lope; rum, lum; bread, bled : le pretre, la plate; key, klee, etc. 
Other words are quite as difficult for them to pronounce. Thus, 
they call shovel, shuml; vinegar, mingar. F is also sounded like 
P ; as pire for fire ; pork for fork. 

The Chehalis is very rich in words, and every one is so expres- 
sive that it is not possible, like the Jargon, to make mistakes. 
The difficulty of learning either the Chenook, Chehalis, or Queinult 
language is that the tribes are so near each other the} 7 frequently 
used each other's words in conversation. They appear to have a 
great aversion to learning the English language, contenting them- 
selves with the Jargon, which they look upon as a sort of white 
man's talk. They, however, are not averse to learning the French, 
probably because they can imitate the sound of French words 
easier than they can the English. 

The tribes of the coast are broken up into small bands, contin- 
ually roaming about, and the only aim they appear to have is to 
become tyee, or chief, which with them means to get as much prop- 
erty as they can, either in slaves, canoes, blankets, horses or guns, 
and then idle away their time. 

It is difficult to account for the great dissimilarity to be found 
among the Indians in regard to language. Living so near to each 
other, having so ready and constant communication, living in the 
same style, with the same natural objects around them, it would 
appear as if they would be much more likely to speak the same 
dialect. That these bands between the Columbia and Fuca Straits 
should differ so, is a subject that I am not ethnologist enough to 
discover."* 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Caraibs, their Skill, their Poisoned Arrows, their Burial, their Food, their 
Vessels, their Navigation, Caracoli — Caraib Ornaments — Their Baskets — 
Their Medical Knowledge — Toulola or Arrow-root, their Antidote to 
Poisoned Arrows — Their Fabric — Their Destruction. 

THE CARAIBS. 

The habits, manners, and many other circumstances of the 
Caraibs having differed much from those of the other natives of 

* " The Northwest Coast ; or, Three Years' Residence in "Washington Terri- 
tory," by James G. Swan. 



CHAP. XXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



287 



the West India Islands, and from those of the Mexican, Peruvian, 
etc., on the Continent of America, it is not easy to trace their origin. 
In some respects they resemble the Indians of the islands and of 
the continent ; in others they differ from them. They might have 
descended from some civilized people who were driven to the 
West Indies by the winds in former time, for it is highly probable 
that the descendants of such a people in such a climate would de- 
generate into savages. The people called by the Spaniards 
Guauches, who were found in the Canary Islands when discovered 
by Juan de JBelencourt, in 1402, had become savages. These 
islands, under the denomination of the Fortunate Islands, were 
well known to the ancients. The Greeks, Phoenicians, and Car- 
thaginians traded to them, and the Guauches are, with good 
reason, supposed to be the descendants of the Phoenicians, or of 
the Carthaginians, yet they had no idea of their origin, nor did 
they know there was any country besides the Canaries in the 
world. Their complexions resembled those of \he people on the 
coast of Africa, w r hich is distant about a hundred and eighty 
miles from the Canaries, but their language, manners and customs 
have no resemblance to those of the present inhabitants of Africa. 
They now live chiefly in the mountains, and goats' milk consti- 
tutes the principal part of their food. Their skins are tawny, 
their noses are flat, and they are bold, hardy, and active. Such 
of them as remained have been in part civilized by the Span- 
iards. The Guauches retained no traces of civilization ; they were 
masters of no sciences, nor had they retained the use of iron. 

The Caraibs had more arts among them than the Guauches, but 
they were not so active. Some writers have given credence to the 
accounts they have met with of the Carthaginians having had 
some intercourse with America, but the fact cannot be substanti- 
ated, otherwise we might be led to believe that they had planted 
a colony in the islands of the Caraibs. There is no difficulty, how- 
ever, attending the belief that some Phoenicians or Carthaginians 
might have been blown into the West Indies in very early times, 
and the navigators, unacquainted w r ith the nature of the trade 
winds, might have found it impossible to return. Such a circum- 
stance is not more unlikely than that Robert Makin, in his voy- 
age from England to France, should be blown by contrary winds 
to the Island of Madeira, in 1344 ; that is, seventy-five years be- 
fore the island w r as discovered by the Portuguese, yet that fact 
seems to be tolerably well authenticated. A Carthaginian vessel 
with both men and women on board might have got into the 
trade-winds and been driven by them to the West Indies, w r hen, 



288 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVIII. 



finding the impossibility of returning, they might have formed a 
settlement. Or, if they had no women with them, they might 
have discovered the continent, or the large islands, and procured 
wives from thence. In process of time their numbers might have 
increased so as to form the scanty population of St. Vincents, 
Martinico, Gaudaloupe, Dominico, and the other small islands 
where the Caraibs were settled. 

The Caraibs knew how to make their carbets, or houses, their 
boats, their cloth, their blankets, their arms, their hammocks, and 
to prepare their provisions. 

Father Labat has given an account of the only Caraib carbet 
which remained in the island of Martinico in the year 1696. It 
was sixty-four feet long and about twenty-four feet wide. The 
posts on which it was erected were rough, forked, and the shortest 
of them about nine feet above ground ; the others were propor- 
tioned to the height of the roof. The windward end was inclosed 
with a kind of wickerwork of split flags, the roof was covered with 
the leaves of the wild plantain — three or four of them will make a 
large umbrella — the laths were made of reeds. The other end 
was nearly all open. 

The hammocks of the Caraibs might lead to a suspicion that 
they were the descendants of some maritime adventurers who 
were driven to the West Indies and there perpetuated the use of 
the hammocks, which they probably had been accustomed to in 
their vessels. This article, however, was used by the Indians of 
the continent and of the large islands. Whether the other In- 
dians learned the use of them from the Caraibs, or the Caraibs 
from them, cannot be ascertained. They were made of coarse 
cotton cloth six or seven feet long and twelve or fourteen feet 
wide ; each end was ornamented with cords, which were two and 
a half or three feet long, twisted and well-made. All the cords 
at each end were joined together, and formed loops through which 
a long rope was inserted in order to fasten the hammock to the 
posts at the sides of the house and support the persons with 
them. They were nearly all painted red with the roncou or an- 
notto before they were used. 

The hammocks of the Caraibs were much superior to those 
made in Europe. One of them would last longer than three of 
those made by Europeans. The thread of which they were made 
was stronger and better spun, and they were more firmly woven, 
yet the spinning-wheel was not known among the Caraibs. They 
had, however, spindles made of the hardest and heaviest wood 
they could find. One turned the spindle, another drew out the 
thread, something in the manner of making ropes. 



CHAP. XXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



289 



The Caraibs were generally rather above the middling stature, 
well-made and proportioned, and their countenances were rather 
agreeable. Their foreheads had an extraordinary appearance, as 
they were flat, or rather hollow or sunken, like the foreheads 
of many of the Indians. Their heads were shaped like those of 
other people when they were born, but the heads of infants were 
made flat by force, a board being bound tightly on their foreheads 
by a ligature, which was wound round their heads and left there 
until the heads of the infants had taken the desired form. The 
forehead then remained flat, so that they could see perpendicu- 
larly when standing erect, and over their heads when lying down, 
which were the objects aimed at by this mode of disfiguration. They 
had small, black eyes, but the flatness of their foreheads made 
their eyes appear rather larger than they otherwise would have 
done. Their teeth were beautifully white and even ; their hair 
was long and of a glossy black. Their hair was anointed with 
the oil of the palmachristi, which they called carapat. It was 
difficult to judge of the color of their skin, because they were 
always painted with roucou, which gave them the appearance 
of boiled lobsters. The coat of paint served them as a species 
of clothing, preserving their skins from the hot rays of the sun 
and defending them against the mosquitoes and gnats, which 
would nearly have devoured them had their skins been naked ; 
but these insects have great antipathy to the roucou. Every 
morning, or whenever they rose from their hammocks, they 
washed themselves in the sea, or in some river, and when the sun 
had dried them they sat in their carbets until their wives had tied 
their hair, oiled it, and after dissolving some roucou in castor oil 
they painted them with a brush from head to foot. The black 
streaks on their faces lasted about nine days, after which they 
wore off. Round their waist they had a belt which served to sup- 
port some small weapon, and it also had annexed to the front of 
it a slip of cloth five or six inches wide and of a suitable length. 
The male children wore the belt without any cloth until they were 
ten or twelve years old. Their countenance had a cast of melan- 
choly, but they were said to be harmless, inoffensive people until 
they were inflamed by passion, which transformed them into 
furies. 

The women were not so tall as the men, but they were equally 
well made, and tolerably fat. Their eyes and hair were black, 
their faces round, their mouths small, and their teeth beautiful. 
They had a gay and lively air, and their countenances were 
smiling, and much more agreeable than those of the men; but 

19 



290 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVIII. 



they were, notwithstanding, perfectly reserved and modest. They 
were painted red with roucou, the same as the men, but without 
the mustaches or black lines. Their hair was tied at the back of 
their heads with a cotton fillet. To the belt round the waist they 
had fastened in front a small piece of cotton cloth, worked, em- 
broidered, and ornamented with beads of different colors, such as 
they made their necklaces of ; it was also ornamented with a 
fringe of necklaces, three inches wide. This article was called 
the camisa ; it was four or five inches deep, exclusive of the 
fringe, and eight or ten inches wide. The belt or cord which fas- 
tened it round the loins was attached to each side of the camisa. 
Most of the women had round their necks several strings of beads 
of different colors and sizes, which hung down on the breast, and 
five or six bracelets of the same kind, which were fixed on the 
wrists, and above the elbows. Blue stones or strings of beads 
hung as pendants from their ears. Infants at the breast and chil- 
dren of eight or ten years of age had bracelets and a girdle of 
large beads round the waist, 

A species of ornament that was peculiar to the women was a 
kind of buskin which was made of cotton. It was fixed just 
above the ankle, and extended four or five inches above it. When 
the girls were about twelve years of age the} 7 received the camisa, 
instead of the belt of beads, which they wore till then ; and the 
mothers, or some of the relations, made the buskins for their legs. 
These they never put off until they were worn out or torn by some 
accident. They had no method of taking them off, for they were 
made on the legs, where they were intended to remain. The} 7 
were so tight that they could not slip either upwards or down- 
wards. At the age when they w T ere put on, the legs were not full 
grown, therefore as they increased in growth, the buskins caused 
the calves to grow much larger and harder than they would natu- 
rally have done. The buskins had at each edge a border made so 
strong that it stood out like the edge of a plate. The upper border 
was about an inch, the under one about half an inch wide. The 
buskins were pretty ornaments for the legs of women ; they wore 
them all their lifetime, and were buried in them. 

When the young women had assumed the buskins and camisa 
they no longer lived among the boys with the same familiarity as 
before, but remained continually with their mothers. Hence it is 
evident much regard was paid to decency and propriety of con- 
duct. It was rare, however, that a girl remained till that age 
without being engaged by some boy, who, after having declared 
his will, considered her as his future spouse, and waited for her 



CHAP. XXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



291 



to become of the proper age. Among them, parents had the right 
to take the daughters of their relations, and often did take them, 
at the age of five years, and bring them up for wives for their 
sons. Only two degrees of kindred were prohibited marrying by 
the Caraibs; these were mothers and their children, and brothers 
and sisters. There was no limit to the number of wives — a Caraib 
took as many as he chose, and frequently married several sisters, 
who were his cousins-german or his nieces. They pretended they 
would love each other the better on account of their being brought 
up together, as well as being better acquainted with each other, 
be the more ready to serve each other, and that the wives would 
be more obedient to their husbands ;* for the Caraibs, like other 
savages, including white savages, considered their wives as their 
servants. 

The Caraibs were melancholy, idle, and the most indifferent of 
all created beings. They passed whole days in their hammocks, 
or in getting in and out of them. Only three things could rouse 
them from their state of indifference ; First. In regard to their 
wives, they were extremely jealous ; they would kill them on the 
slightest suspicion of infidelity. Second. They were so exces- 
sively vindictive that when their passions were aroused no people 
in the world could be more vigorously active, or seek with more 
unremitting perseverance for opportunities to revenge an affront. 
Third. They had a most ardent passion for rum and other strong 
liquors, and they would give all they possessed for an opportu- 
nity to indulge in them to excess. 

In their wars they were murderous and cruel. The heads of 
their arrows were barbed and poisoned, and they were fastened 
to the shaft in such a way that when they penetrated the body 
the shaft would fall off, and the head remain in the wound. 
Sometimes it was difficult to find the head, and it consequently 
remained a long time in the wound. Then it often happened that 
the poison remained long enough in the wound to prove mortal, 
for if it communicated to the vitals before the arrow-root, which is 
the only effectual antidote, could be administered, the case was 
without remedy. 

When a Caraib died he was immediately painted all over with 
roucou, and his mustachios, and the black streaks on his face 
made with a black paint, which was different from that used in 
their lifetime. A kind of grave was then dug in the carbet — house, 

* These are some of the reasons the Mormons give for their polygamy. To 
these might be added that sisters without children would take an interest in 
the children of their sisters. 



292 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVIII. 



where he died— about four feet square and six or seven feet 
deep. The body was let down in it, when sand was thrown in 
until it reached the knees, and the body was then seated on it, 
with the elbows on the knees, and the palms of the hands against 
the cheeks. No part of the body touched the side of the grave, 
which was covered with wood and mats, until the relatives had 
examined it. When the customary examination and inspec- 
tion was ended the hole was filled, and the body afterwards re- 
mained undisturbed. The hair of the deceased was kept tied 
behind. The arms of the Caraibs were placed by them, when 
they were covered over for inspection, and they were finally buried 
with them. 

The Caraibs were hunters and fishermen. Their food was gen- 
erally roasted or broiled, as they did not relish anything that was 
boiled or stewed, except crabs. At their meals they commonly 
used two mattatous, or tables, one for the cassada or cassava, which 
was their bread, the other for the fish, fowls, birds, crabs, pimen- 
tado, and other articles. The pimentado was made of the juice of 
the manioc, which they boiled, and in which they infused a quan- 
tity of pimentado, pounded, with the juice of lemon or some other 
acid. The mattatou served for plate as well as table, and was open 
to all comers ; for whoever entered the house at meal-time had, by 
immemorial custom of the Caraibs, a right to squat down and par- 
take of the repast. No one was forbidden, and this custom was so 
well understood as to render it unnecessary to invite any one to 
eat. They never gave invitations. They stooped on their haunches, 
like monkeys, round their mattatou, and ate with surprising appe- 
tite, without speaking a single word. When they had finished their 
meals they rose with as little ceremony as they used in squatting 
down. Those who were thirsty refreshed themselves with water or 
other beverage; some smoked, others lounged in their hammocks, 
and a group or party sometimes engaged in conversation. The 
women waited on the 'men, but were never suffered to eat with 
them ; they were obliged to dine with the girls and the young- 
children in the kitchen. Thither, as soon as the men had dined, 
they removed the mattatous and the provisions which remained. 
While the mothers arranged their dinners in the kitchen, the girls 
swept the carbets where the men had eaten ; wives, daughters, and 
young children then squatted round the mattatous and discussed 
their contents. The manioc, of which the cassava or cassada is 
made, was a great article of food among the Caraibs. 

The Caraibs seem to have been the most expert of all the savage 
inhabitants of America in maritime affairs. They had two sorts 



CHAP. XXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



293 



of vessels for performing their voyages between St. Vincent's, Do- 
minica, Guadaloupe, and Martinico. One kind was called bacas- 
sas, with three masts and square sails ; the others, called pirogues, 
had only one mast, and were about thirty feet long by four and a 
half in the middle. They were elevated at the ends, where they 
were about fifteen inches wide. Eight or nine seats were made in 
them of planks, not sawed, but split out and made smooth. About 
eight inches behind each seat was a brace of wood, about the size 
of a man's arm, fastened to each side of the vessel, and, being 
higher than the seat, served to support the rowers sitting on the 
benches. The edges of the pirogues had holes in them through 
which cords of maho were inserted, and by these ropes their ham- 
mocks, provisions, and various other articles were suspended. 

The bacassa was about forty-two feet long, and seven feet wide 
in the middle. The head was raised and pointed nearly like that 
of a pirogue, but the stern was flat and cut into a poop. Their 
earthenware, and various other articles, show that the monkey was 
an object of imitation, if not of veneration, among the Caraibs. 
They had awkward figures of monkeys at the stern of several of 
their vessels. These they painted black, white, and red. The bacas- 
sas had seats like those of the pirogues. The vessels of the Caraibs 
were built of the West India cedar, which is scarcely inferior to 
the mahogany in beauty, and grows to a prodigious size. One of 
them made the keel of a vessel. It was felled with immense labor, 
hewn to a proper degree of thickness, well wrought, and made very 
smooth ; and, if any addition to the height of the sides was re- 
quired, planks were added to them. This operation was performed 
by means of sharp hatchets made of flint. The Caraibs had not 
the saw, nor had they invented the rudder. The steersman sat 
astern, and steered with a paddle which was fully a third longer 
than the common-sized paddles used in rowing. The paddle was 
made in the shape of an oven-shovel, five or six feet long; the 
handle comprised about three-fourths of the length ; it was round. 
The broad part was about eight inches wide and an inch and a half 
thick in the middle, but it was tapered to about six lines in thick- 
ness at the edges. Two grooves were cut to the bottom of the 
paddle, which seemed to mark the course of the handle through 
the broad part. On the end of the handle was sometimes fastened 
a transverse piece like the handle of a shovel, which served to hold 
when steering. The Caraibs made use of the paddles to row with 
as well as to steer, but they sat with their faces towards the prow 
of the vessel. 

Some of the bacassas had topmasts, and sometimes the Caraibs 



294 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVIII. 



had fleets of twenty or thirty sail of the bacassas and pirogues 
out at a time. 

The surf breaks with great violence on the coasts of the islands 
formerly owned by the Caraibs, and they were obliged to draw 
their vessels ashore. The hauling them ashore and again launch- 
ing them into the water required much strength and art. On the 
windward side of some of the islands of the Caraibs seven enor- 
mous waves break on the shore successively, then a calm for a 
brief time intervenes between the next series. The last three waves 
are the largest. Amidst these waves the Caraibs land and draw 
their vessels ashore, fix them on stones placed for that purpose. 
When they re-embark they deposit all their goods, their wives and 
children, in the boat. The women and children sit in the middle 
of the bottom of the boat, the men range themselves alongside, 
each against his seat, where his paddle is placed. When the great 
waves break on the shore, and the steersman sees the critical mo- 
ment, he gives a shout, and the boat in a moment is launched. 
The men spring into their boat, the steersman last, and paddle 
with all their might, but in a slanting or transverse direction. The 
boisterousness of their seas makes them skilful navigators. They 
sailed among the West India islands, often visiting Hayti or His- 
panola, which was no inconsiderable voyage. One of the princi- 
pal reasons of Columbus for supposing there was some country 
westward of Europe was grounded on the fact of his having seen 
the bodies of some copper-colored men floating on the coast of the 
Island of Madeira. That these bodies could not have floated all 
the way from America is certain. There is no current to have car- 
ried them there ; or, if there had been a current, the bodies would 
have been decayed or been devoured by fishes long before they 
could have arrived at so great a distance. It is more reasonable 
to suppose that some adventurous Caraibs, on a voyage of dis- 
covery, or driven into unknown seas by some tempest or hurri- 
cane, were lost on the coast of Madeira ; for that island, at certain 
seasons of the year, is enveloped in an almost impenetrable haze, 
which renders it nearly invisible till a vessel comes in contact 
with the shore. Such a voyage would not have been much more 
extraordinary than some of the voyages the Caraibs made to the 
westward. They were well acquainted with the Island of St. 
Domingo, and probably with the whole Gulf of Mexico. The 
Cacique Caunabo, who was taken by Columbus at the gold-mines 
of Cebao in St. Domingo, and sent by him prisoner to Spain, was 
a Caraib who had advanced himself to a command in that island 
by his warlike qualities and abilities. 



CHAP. XXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



295 



Ornaments made of the metal called caracoli were exclusively 
appropriated to the men. The metal called caracoli came from 
the South American continent, and has been supposed to be a 
simple metal, but no one except the Indians could ever find it, 
therefore many people have been of opinion it was a composition 
made by them. The English and French jewelers have attempted 
to make caracoli, but they have never been able to arrive at an 
exact imitation of it, for the caracoli of the Caraibs appears like 
silver covered over with some inflammable or rather inflamed 
substance, and the radiance and brilliance of it is matchless ; nor 
will it tarnish, although it lie ever so long in the earth or in the 
sea. The nearest the European jewelers can approach this beau- 
tiful metal is by mixing six parts of fine silver, three parts of pu- 
rified or refined copper, and one part of fine gold, but it is not 
equal to the Indian caracoli. 

The caracolis which the Caraibs made were in the form of cres- 
cents of different sizes, which were adapted to the situations where 
they were worn. They were suspended by small chains of the 
same metal fastened near each end of the crescent, which had a 
loop or hook in the middle for the purpose of fastening it. A full- 
dressed Caraib wore one in each ear, which was about two and a 
half inches long. Those who had no chains suspended them by 
a cotton thread, which was passed through the centre of the cres- 
cent, the metal of which was about the thickness of a sixpence 
piece. Another caracoli of the same size was attached to the gris- 
tle which separates the nostrils, and hung on the mouth. The 
under part of the lower lip was pierced, and thence hung another 
caracoli about a third larger than the others, which reached half 
way down the neck. In the fifth and last place they had one six 
or seven inches long, which was encased in a small board of 
black wood, perhaps ebony, and shaped into a crescent. This 
was fastened around the neck by a small cord, and fell upon the 
breast. When the»y did not wear the caracoli they put sticks in 
their ears, noses, and lips, to prevent the closing of the holes. 
They had small green stones which they used as amulets, and some- 
times inserted in the bored places, instead of the sticks. Instead of 
sticks and stones, however, they sometimes inserted parrot-plumes 
or other feathers, red, blue, green or yellow, which made mus- 
tachios ten or twelve inches long on each side of the mouth, both 
above and below it. They had others in 'their ears, and thus 
made themselves the most grotesque figures in the world. They 
had the habit of sticking the hair of their children full of feathers 
of different colors, which was done very prettily, and gave the 
children a handsome appearance and air. 



296 



THE INDIAN AXD ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXVIII. 



They made of reeds, or the fibres of the latanier, baskets of va- 
rious forms and sizes, painted of various colors, and worked them 
into apartments or squares. After they had determined upon the 
size of the basket they braided their reeds into squares or copart- 
ments. Those for the close hampers were braided in the closest 
manner. After the outside of the basket was finished they made 
a lining in the same manner and of the same kind of materials. 
Between the outside and the lining they put leaves of the cache- 
bou. or wild plantains, which were withered in the sun. or over the 
fire, and thus rendered very strong and tough. The leaves were 
fitted with so much nicety and exactness that the paniers would 
hold water as well as any wooden vessel. 

The Caraibs were well acquainted with the medicinal virtues 
of many trees and plants. With the toulola they used to cure 
the wounds made by poisoned arrows. For this purpose they 
took the fresh-dug roots and made a patisan of it which was ad- 
ministered to the wounded person : and it possessed the power of 
expelling the poison from the vitals. Cataplasms of the bruised 
root were also laid on the wounds, whence the poison was soon 
extracted. But it was necessary the remed}^ should be speedily 
applied, for the poison of the manchinell operates rapidly. The 
parts round the wound soon perish, and, if the poison finds its 
way into the bloodvessels, it always proves mortal. This noble 
plant, which was called toulola by the Caraibs, is called arrow- 
root by the English and herbe aux fleches by the French, because 
of its being so powerful an antidote to the poisoned arrows. It is 
now cultivated and makes some of the finest flour. Few of the 
productions of nature are so nutritive.* 

The Caraibs raised cotton-wool on the common cotton-shrub 
of the island, but they also gathered cotton of the great cotton- 
tree which they called mahot. and made thread of it. The plan- 
tains they stripped into fibres and made cloth of them. The bark 
of the white mangle-tree they also spun into a kind of thread. A 
variety of articles were made from the fibres of the prickly and 
cabbage-palm, which they made into a kind of hemp. From the 
leaves of those trees they made baskets, brooms, hammock-like 
nets, bags, and many other utensils : these articles were made 
pliant by means of fire.t 

* If the arrow-root was so efficacious in curing wounds made by poisoned 
arrows, might it not prove an antidote against other poisons ? 

f The use of the palm-tree by the Caraibs for the manufacture of various arti- 
cles four hundred years ago has recently been adopted by the people of Florida, 
and considered as a new industry. 



CHAP. XXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



297 



The Caraibs were cruelly destroyed, chiefly by the French. 
Such of them as were found in St. Kitts were massacred while the 
island was possessed jointly by the English and French. The 
French destroyed or expelled them from Martinico and Guada- 
loupe because, after they began their settlements in these islands, 
the Caraibs sometimes murdered stragglers. After many contests 
the remnants of the Caraibs were driven to Dominica. Those in 
St. Vincents were sometimes employed by the French against the 
English and by the English against the French, until they were 
nearly exterminated. The remnants of that much-abused and in- 
jured people in Dominica are said to amount to about thirty fami- 
lies at the present time (1817). * 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

The Mummies of Tennessee and Kentucky ; Where Found — How Dressed and 

How Buried. 

It is well known that when Kentucky was first visited by 
white men no Indian inhabitants were found in it, though there 
are found in several portions of it ancient monuments similar to 
those north of the Ohio river. It is something very remarkable 
that this region of country should have been uninhabited while In- 
dian settlements were found on all sides of it. The ancient monu- 
ments found within it would indicate that the people who built 
the ancient earthworks of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois also once 
inhabited the region of Kentucky, and erected the mounds that 
tell of its ancient occupation. Some of these monuments show 
as high a degree of civilization, or of progress in the arts, as the 
magnificent monuments of the Mexicans, and the costumes of 
the ancient inhabitants of Kentucky indicate a people as refined, 
and intelligent, and skilled in their domestic manufactures, as 
will appear from the following accounts of the early discoveries 
of ancient corpses clothed in the costumes of that day, when, 
living beings, they dwelt within its borders. 

The Mummies of North America. 

(Moses Fisk, Esq., to the President of the American Antiquarian Society.) 

In the year 1810, two bodies, one of a man, and the other of a 
child six or eight years of age, were dug up in Warren County, in 

* Taken from an account of the Caraibs, communicated to the American An- 
tiquarian Society by William Sheldon, Esq., of the Island of Jamaica, and cor- 
responding member of the Society. 



298 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIX. 



the State of Tennessee, wrapped in deer-skin,* and clothes of a 
singular texture, some of linen and some of tree-bark twine and 
feathers, with other articles, chiefly about the child, in a state of 
preservation like mummies, retaining their nails and hair, with 
their skins entire, though decayed, discolored and tender. I speak 
of the man from information, he having been reburied before I 
visited the place. Their flesh seems to have dried and wasted 
away by a kind of evaporation. They lay in a chamber half way 
up a steep hill, under a large projecting roof of rocks, buried a yard 
deep in a bed of dry chalk, which contains a strong mixture of 
copperas, alum and nitre, and I believe, of sulphur.f 

There were ancient habitations in the neighborhood, but no 
modern dwellings belonging to the natives, within several days' 
journey. Most of the caves, so numerous in this calcareous coun- 
try, were used by that primitive nation for sepulchres, in which va- 
rious relics are found, such as bows and arrows, poles cut off with 
flint stones, clay ware, fishing-nets, clothes, mats, fragments of 
baskets, differently preserved, according to the state and qualities 
of the circumambient air and earth. 

The basket used as a coffin for the child, made of split cane, J 
and now in my possession, appears to have been wrought without 
the help of an edged tool, though of good workmanship. 

And, finally, as the variety of articles buried with the bodies, in 
particular that of the child, announces superior rank, we should, 
from this circumstance, naturally expect, had they been members 
of any tribe now in the country, to have found, if anything, a few 
silver or other metallic ornaments upon them, instead of ingenious 
feather clothes, fans, and belts, or if there had been a belt, it would 
have been of wampum. 

From the immense number of their dwellings, as well as from 
their numerous public works, we ma}^ compute their residence here 
at several centuries. But whether ]ess or more, it is probably a 
full millenium, certainly half an one, since their extinction. 

* These deer-skins, in many places where they are mentioned, are what is com- 
monly known as buckskin, viz., dressed deer-skins. These dressed skins are ex- 
actly the same in appearance, quality and color, as the chamois-skins sold by 
druggists. 

t Was this person buried or deposited in a cave (" chamber") under a pro- 
jecting rock, where the earth accumulated over it; or was he buried "three 
feet" below the surface of the cave or " chamber?" It was the custom of some 
Indians to deposit their dead in caves. 

J The outside of the cane is split from the stalk, and made by the Indians into 
baskets of various forms. The strips of cane are often dyed different colors. 
Some of these baskets are admirably made. 



CHAP. XXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



299 



Nothing satisfactory, as far as I can ascertain, is gathered from 
the modem Indian, about them, though these tribes have been in 
possession of the country for ages. 

It is to be regretted that these ancient ruins and relics have been 
exposed to so much depredation. Valuable articles are lost by be- 
ing found. The finest specimen of statuary that I have heard of 
in the country was knocked to pieces, to ascertain what sort of 
stone it was made of. It was the bust of a man, holding a bowl 
with a fish in it, and was constructed of a piece of marble.* 

Dr. Mitchell, of New York, communicated the following to the 
American Antiquarian Society, August 24, 1815 : 

I offer you some observations on a curious piece of American 
antiquity, now in New York. It is a human body, found in one 
of the limestone caves of Kentucky. It is a perfect exsiccation ; 
all the fluids are dried up. The skin, bones, and other firm parts 
are in a state of entire preservation. 

In exploring a calcareous chamber in the neighborhood of Glas- 
gow, for saltpetre, several human bodies were found, carefully 
enwrapped in skins and cloths. They were inhumed below the 
floor of the cave, inhumed, and not lodged in catacombs. The 
outer envelope of the body is a deer-skin, probably dried in the 
usual way, and perhaps softened before its application by rub- 
bing. The next covering is a deer-skin, the hair of which had 
been cut away by a sharp instrument resembling a hatter's knife. 
The remnant of the hair and the gashes in the skin nearly re- 
sembled a sheared pelt of beaver. The next wrapper is of cloth 
made of twine, doubled and twisted. But the thread does not 
appear to have been formed by the wheel nor the web by the 
loom. The warp and filling seem to have been crossed and 
knotted by an operation like that of the fabrics of the northwest 
coast and of the Sandwich Islands. 

The innermost tegument is a mantle of cloth, like the preceding, 
but furnished with large brown feathers, arranged and fastened 
with great art, so as to guard the living wearer from wet and cold. 
The plumage is distinct and entire, and the whole bears a near 
similitude to the feathery cloaks now worn by the nations of the 
northwestern coast of America. 

The body is in a squatting posture, with the right arm reclining 
forward, and its hand encircling the right leg. The left arm hangs 
down, with the hand inclined partly under the seat. The indi- 

* By Moses Fisk, Esq., of Hilkam, Tenn., April 8, 1815. In "Antiquities of 
the West," by Caleb Atwater. 



300 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIX. 



vidual, who was a male, did not probably exceed the age of four- 
teen at his death. There is a deep and extensive fracture of the 
skull, near the occiput, which probably killed him. The skin has 
sustained little injury ; it is of a dusky color, but the natural hue 
cannot be decided with exactness from its present appearance. 
The scalp, with small exceptions, is covered with a sorrel or foxy 
hair. The teeth are white and sound. The hands and feet, in 
their shrivelled state, are slender and delicate. 

There is nothing bituminous or aromatic in or about the body, 
nor are there bandages around any part. Except the several wrap- 
pers, the body is totally naked. There is no sign of a suture or 
incision about the belly, whence it seems that the viscera were not 
removed. 

The information we derived from Messrs. Cassedy and Miller, 
of Tennessee, relative to the human bodies found in a copperas 
cave, near the Cany Branch of the Cumberland River, was very 
curious (Medical Repository, vol. xv., p. 147). Pieces of the cloth 
which enwrapped them are now preserved in Mr. Scudders mu- 
seum, and an exsiccated foot is also there. One piece of the fabric 
is plain, and the other decorated with feathers. 

Since that time other discoveries have been made. Thomas B. 
Moore, Esq., during the year 1814, sent to New York an entire 
body found in a saltpetrous cave in the neighborhood of Glasgow, 
in Kentucky. This was in the state of a dried preparation, in a 
squatting posture, with the right hand encircling the knee. It 
was wrapped in deer-skins and artificial cloths. The latter are 
of two kinds — plain, and decorated with feathers. These pieces 
of antiquity were described in a letter written by Dr. Mitchell to 
Mr. Burnside. 

The fabrics accompanying the Kentucky bodies resemble very 
nearly those which encircled the mummies of Tennessee. On 
comparing the two sets of samples, they were ascertained to be 
as much alike as two pieces of dimity or diaper from different 
manufactories. 

Other antiquities of the same class have come to light. Mr. 
Gratz, of Philadelphia, the proprietor of the vast cavern figured 
and described in the Medical Repository, vol. xvii., has very oblig- 
ingly sent to Dr. Mitchell other specimens of cloths, things made 
of these cloths, and raw materials, dug out of that unparalleled 
excavation. A parcel of these articles, now in Dr. Mitchell's 
possession, was accompanied with the following note : — " There 
will be found in this bundle two moccasins in the same state 
they were when dug out of the Mammoth Cave, about two hun- 



CHAP. XXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



301 



dred yards from its mouth. Upon examination it will be per- 
ceived that they are fabricated out of different materials ; one is 
supposed to be made of a species of flag, or lily, which grows in 
the southern part of Kentucky; the other of the bark of some 
tree, probably the pappaiv* 

There are also in this packet a part of what is supposed to be a 
Kinnekinnic pouch, two meshes of a fishing-net, and a piece of 
what is supposed to be the raw material, and of which the fishing- 
net, the pouch and one of the moccasins were made, all of which 
were dug out of the Mammoth Cave, nine or ten feet under ground; 
that is, below the surface or floor of the cavern. You will find 
likewise two Indian beads discovered in a cave in the vicinity of 
the Mammoth Cave. 

We have also an Indian bowl, or cup, containing about a pint, 
cut out of wood, found also in the cave ; and lately there has 
been dug out of it the skeleton of a human body enveloped in a 
matting similar to that of the Kinnekinnic pouch. 

This matting is substantially like those of the plain fabric from 
the copperas cave of Tennessee and the saltpetrous cavern near 
Glasgow." 

Mr. John H. Farnham, in his description of the Mammoth Cave 
communicated to the American Antiquarian Society the fol- 
lowing : 

" The greatest curiosity, however, remains to be described. It 
was, in the language of the people, an ' Indian mummy.' Mum- 
mies, however, or embalmed bodies, are not found in America. 
This was an Indian woman whose flesh and muscles had been 
dried to the bones and kept in so great a state of preservation that 
many of the features were distinctly discernible — the shape and 
conformation of the ears were perfectly preserved, and the hands, 
fingers, and toe-nails; the teeth all in their proper place; the 
lips, though dried, were yet coral in their appearance ; much of 
the hair was perfect, and the whole carcass and its mode of burial 
have furnished to all who have seen it a copious topic of admira- 
tion and conjecture. Her posture, as she was found, precisely re- 
sembled most of the Indian skeletons that have at different times 
been found in the western country. She was buried in a squat- 
ting form, the knees drawn up close to the breast, the arms bent, 
with the hands raised and crossing each other about the chin, in a 
close position, as if she would guard her vital parts from injury. 
She was found in this posture inclosed in a couple of deer-skins, 

* The Indians (Natchez and some others of the Arkansas), made cloth out of 
nettle and out of the bark of the mulberry tree. 



302 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXIX. 



which were bound together by a ligament of braided bark, a 
species of manufacture exclusively Indian. There were found, 
likewise, buried with her many ornamental articles, such as birds' 
feathers, colored and stained in various ways ; beads formed of 
dried berries ; the skin and rattles of a snake ; a fawn's foot in a 
state of perfect preservation, and many other articles, mostly ap- 
propriate to feminine use, and which denoted her to have been a 
woman of distinction. No article was found that denoted the 
slightest commerce with the Europeans, and the general opinion 
of those who have examined this carcass, and seen other Indian 
skeletons, is that she must have lain there several centuries. The 
carcass was very light, though the dried flesh and entrails were 
preserved, not weighing more than twelve or fourteen pounds. 
The woman was nearly six feet high. The color of the carcass 
was that of dried tobacco, of a yellowish hue. It was found three 
months since* under some rocks in a neighboring cave by some 
workmen." 

The following, from a letter of Charles Wilkin s to the A. A. So- 
ciety, dated Lexington, Kentucky, October 2, 1817, has more par- 
ticulars regarding the mummy precedingly described by Mr. 
Farnham : 

" I received information that an infant of nine or twelve months 
old was discovered in a saltpetre cave in Warren County, about 
four miles from the Mammoth Cave, in a perfect state of preserva- 
tion. I hastened to the place, but to my mortification found that 
upon its being exposed to the atmosphere it had fallen into dust, 
and that its remains, except the skull, with all its clothing, had 
been thrown into the furnace. I regretted this much, and prom- 
ised the laborers to reward them if they would preserve the next 
subject for me. About a month afterward the present one was 
discovered, and information given to our agent at the Mammoth 
Cave, who sent immediately for it and brought and placed it 
there, where it remained for twelve months. It appears to be the 
exsiccated body of a female. The account I received of its dis- 
cover}^ was simply this: It was found at the depth of about ten feet 
from the surface of the cave, bedded in clay, strongly impregnated 
with nitre, placed in a sitting posture, encased in broad stones 
standing on their edges, with a flat stone covering the whole. It 
was enveloped in coarse cloths, the whole wrapped in deer-skins, 
the hair of which was shaven off in the manner in which the In- 
dians prepare them for market. Enclosed in the stone coffin were 
the working utensils, beads, feathers, and other ornaments of 

* There is no date to the article as published in 1 ' American Antiquities. ' ' 



CHAP. XXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



303 



dress, which belonged to her. The body was in a state of much 
higher perfection when first discovered, and continued so as 
long as it remained in the Mammoth Cave, than it is at present, 
except the depredation committed on the arms and thighs by the 
rats, many of which inhabit the cave. After it was brought to 
Lexington and became the subject of great curiosity, being much 
exposed to the atmosphere, it gradually began to decay, its mus- 
cles to contract, and the teeth to drop out, and much of its hair 
was plucked from its head by wanton visitants. 

The cave in which the mummy was found is not of great extent, 
being not more than three-quarters of a mile in extent, its surface 
covered with loose limestone from four to six feet deep before you 
enter the clay impregnated with nitre. It is of easy access, being 
about twenty feet wide and six feet high at the entrance. It is 
enlarged to about fifty feet wide and ten feet high almost as soon 
as you enter it. This place had evident marks of having once 
been the residence of the aborigines of the country from the quan- 
tity of ashes and the remains of fuel and torches made of the reed, 
etc., which were found in it." 

It is worthy of notice that the depth of ancient graves vary, ac- 
cordingly as the earth has accumulated or diminished over them. 
Mr. Fisk says the regular Indian grave of , East Tennessee was 
twelve or eighteen inches deep, but this mummy of which Mr. 
Wilkins speaks was found about ten feet below the present surface, 
of the cave (probably Horse Cave ), and the surface of the cave was 
covered with loose limestone to the depth of four to six feet before 
the clay impregnated with nitre was reached. It thus appears 
that this mummy was from four to six feet beneath the original 
surface. From the description of it it is evident that this mummy 
was regularly and intentionally buried there. From all these 
facts some idea may be formed of the many ages it has remained 
there. It is not improbable that if careful excavations were made 
to a depth six feet below the original surface of the cave, the ex- 
plorer would make some interesting discoveries and very valuable 
contributions to the earliest history of this continent. 



304 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXX. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell on the Varieties of the Human Eace — The Settlement of 
America — The High Rock Spring of Saratoga an Evidence of the Antiquity 
of Man — Lewis H. Morgan on Indian Migration. 

Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, of New York, contributed several 
articles to the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, 
of which Mr. Caleb Atwater was President. The following quota- 
tions are from these articles as published in " Antiquities of the 
West:" 

u New York, January 13, 1817. 
It was only since I became a member of the American Anti- 
quarian Society that I began to investigate in earnest the history 
of the people who inhabited America before the arrival of our 
forefathers. 

My opportunities while I was Senator in Congress were very 
favorable to an acquaintance with the native tribes. By the de- 
cision of the Senate I was for several years a sort of permanent 
chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. I soon became 
convinced that the opinions of the European historians and natur- 
alists were so full of hypothesis and error that they ought to be 
discarded. My faith in the transatlantic doctrines began to be 
shaken in 1805, when my intercourse with the Osages and Chero- 
kees led me to entertain of them very different opinions from those 
I had derived from the books I had read. 

New York, March 31, 1816. 

The view which I took of the varieties of the human race in my 
course of Natural History delivered in the University of New York 
differs in so many particulars from that entertained by the great 
zoologists of the age that I give you for information a summary 
of my yesterday's lectures to my class. 

I denied in the beginning that the American aborigines were of 
a peculiar constitution, of a race sui generis, and of copper-color. 

The indigenes of America appear to me to be of the same stock 
and genealogy with the inhabitants of northern and southern Asia. 
The northern tribes were probably more hardy, ferocious, and war- 
like than those of the south. As the Tartars have overrun China, 
so the Aztecs subdued Mexico. As the Huns and Alans desolated 
Italy, so the Chippewas and Iroquois prostrated the populous set- 
tlements on both banks of the Ohio. 



CHAP. XXX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



305 



The surviving race in these terrible conflicts between the dif- 
ferent nations of the ancient residents of North America is evi- 
dently that of the Tartars. This opinion is founded upon four 
considerations : 

1st. The similarity of physiognomy and features. His Excel- 
lency M. Genet, late minister plenipotentiary from France to the 
United States, is well acquainted with the faces, hues, and figures of 
our Indians and of the Asiatic Tartars, and is perfectly satisfied of 
their mutual resemblance. Monsieur Cazeaux, consul of France to 
New York, has drawn the same conclusions from a careful exami- 
nation of the native men of North America and of northern Asia. 

Mr. Smibert, who had been employed, as Josiah Meigs, Esq., now 
Commissioner of the Land Office in the United States, relates, in 
executing paintings of Tartar visages for the Grand Duke of Tus- 
cany, was so struck with the similarity of their features to those 
of the Narraganset Indians that he pronounced them members of 
the same great family of mankind. 

Within a few months I examined over and again seven or eight 
Chinese sailors who had assisted in navigating a ship from Macao 
to New York. The thinness of their beards, the bay complexion, 
the black, lank hair, the aspect of the eyes, the contour of the face, 
and, in short, the general external character, induced every one who 
observed them to remark how nearly they resembled the Mohegans 
and Oneidas of New York. 

Sidi Mellimelli, the Tunisian envoy to the United States in 1804, 
entertained the same opinion on beholding the Cherokees, Osages, 
and Miamis assembled at the city of Washington during his resi- 
dence there. Their Tartar physiognomy struck him in a moment. 

2d. The affinity of their languages. The late learned and enter- 
prising Professor Barton took the lead in this curious inquiry. He 
collected as many words as he could from the languages spoken in 
Asia and America, and he concluded, from the numerous coinci- 
dences of sound and signification, that there must have been a 
common origin. 

3d. The existence of corresponding customs. I mean to state 
that at present that of shaving away the hair of the scalp from the 
fore part and sides of the head, so that nothing is left but a tuft or 
lock on the crown. 

The custom of smoking the pipe on solemn occasions to the four 
cardinal points of the compass, to the heaven and the earth, is 
reported, upon the most credible authority, to distinguish equally 
the hordes of the Asiatic Tartars and the bands of the American 
Sioux. 

20 



306 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XXX. 



4th. The kindred nature of the Indian dogs of America and the 
Siberian dogs of Asia. 

II. The exterminated race in the savage intercourse between the 
natives of North America in ancient days appears clearly to have 
been that of the Malays. 

I reject, therefore, the doctrine taught by the European natu- 
ralists that the men of western America differ in any material 
point from the men of eastern Asia. 

Having thus given the history of these races of man, spreading 
so extensively over the globe, I consider the human family under 
three divisions. 

First, the tawny man, comprehending the Tartars, Malays, Chi- 
nese, the American Indians of every tribe, Lascars, and other peo- 
ple of the same castor breed. From these seem to have proceeded 
two remarkable varieties, to wit : 

Secondly, the white man, inhabiting naturally the countries in 
Asia and Europe, situated north of the Mediterranean Sea, and in 
the course of his adventures, settling all over the world. Among 
these I reckon the Greenlanders and Esquimaux. 

Thirdly, the black man, whose proper residence is in the regions 
south of the Mediterranean, particularly towards the interior of 
Africa. The people of Papua and Van Dieman's Land seem to be 
of this class. 

A late German writer, Professor Vater, has published at Leipzig 
a book on the population of America. It is, in reality, a display 
of Humboldt's opinions on the subject. He lays great stress on 
the tongues spoken by the aborigines, and dwells considerably on 
the unity prevailing in the whole of them, from Chili to the re- 
motest districts of North America — whether of Greenland, Chip- 
pewa, Delaware, Natick, Totouaka, Corea, or Mexican. Though 
ever so singular and diversified, nevertheless the same peculiarity 
obtains among them all, which cannot be accidental, viz., ' the 
whole sagacity of the people, from whom the construction of the 
American languages, and the gradual invention of their grammat- 
ical terms are derived, has, as it were, selected one object, and over 
this diffused such an abundance of forms, that one is astonished, 
while only the most able philologist, by assiduous study, can ob- 
tain a general view thereof,' etc. In substance, the author says, 
that through various times and circumstances this peculiar char- 
acter, is preserved. Such union, such direction or tendency, com- 
pels us to place the origin in a remote period, when an original 
tribe or people existed whose ingenuity and judgment enabled them 
to excogitate such intricate formations of language as could not be 



CHAP. XXX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



807 



effaced by thousands of years, nor by the influence of zones and 
climes. Mr. Vater has published a large work entitled ' Mithri- 
dates,' in which he has given an extensive comparison of all the 
Asiatic, African, and American languages,'* to a much greater extent 
than was done by our distinguished fellow-citizen, Dr. Barton. He 
concludes by expressing his desire to unravel the mysteries which 
relate to the new and the old continents, at least to contribute the 
contents of his volume towards the commencement of the structure, 
which, out of the ruin of delacerated human tribes seeks material 
for a union of the whole human race. 

What this original and radical language was has lately been 
made subject of inquiry, by the learned Mr. Mathieu, of Nancy, 
France. But what need is there of this etymological research and 
grammatical conjecture? The features, manners and dress dis- 
tinguishable in the North American natives of the high latitudes 
prove the people to be of the same race with the Samoicles and 
Tartars of Asia. And the physiognomy, manufactures and cus- 
toms of the North American tribes of the middle and low latitudes, 
and of South America, show them to be nearly akin to the Malay 
race of Australasia and Polynesia. 

All this may be considered as correct, as far as Tartars and 
Malays are concerned, but there is another part of the American 
population which deserves to be particularly considered. I mean 
the emigrants from Lapland, Norway and Finland, who, before the 
tenth century, settled themselves in Greenland, and passed over to 
Labrador. It is recorded that these adventurers settled themselves 
in a country which they called Vinland. This was probably a new 
settlement, so called in honor of Finland, the region whence the 
adventurers came. Or, if it were a land of vines, the proof is the 
stronger of their southern encampment. Thus the northeastern 
lands of North America were visited by the hyperborean tribes 
from the northwesternmost climates of Europe, and the north- 
western climes of North America had received inhabitants of the 
same race from the northeastern regions of Asia. 

My opinion is that the antiquities of our country were never 
presented to us in so interesting and advantageous an aspect as at 
present. Their number and their description is more attended to 
than heretofore. There are more good observers, and therefore 
we are enabled to form more correct conclusions. At the same 
time it must be remembered that the vestiges of the aborigines, 
their manners, their languages and their arts, are becoming rapidly 

* All the Asiatic, African, and American languages ! Bold assertion. 



* 



308 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXX. 



more and more faint, and many of them will soon vanish alto- 
gether out of sight. It therefore becomes the Society and all its 
members to employ every moment of time, and every opportunity 
that can be found, to delineate them as the} r are, and to save them 
from oblivion. My observations led me several years ago to the 
conclusion that the two great continents were peopled by similar 
races of men ; and that America, as well as Asia, had its Tartars 
in the north and its Malays in the south. If there were but his- 
torians, we should find a striking resemblance. America has had 
her Scythians, her Alans, and her Huns; but there has been no 
historian to record their formidable emigrations, and their bar- 
barous achievements. How little of past events do we know ! 

There is a class of antiquities which present themselves on 
digging from thirty to fifty feet below the present surface of the 
ground. They occur in the form of firebrands, split wood, ashes, 
coals, and occasionally of tools and utensils, buried to those 
depths by the alluvion, and have been observed, as I am informed, 
in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, and 
doubtless in other places. I have heard of some in Ohio. I wish 
the members of the Society would exert themselves with all possi- 
ble diligence to ascertain and collect the facts of this description. 
They will be exceedingly curious both to the geologist and to the 
historian. After such facts shall have been collected and method- 
ized, we may, perhaps, draw some satisfactory conclusions." 

Of this last class of antiquities, Saratoga in the State of New 
York gives a very interesting example. 

The High Rock Spring at Saratoga derives its name from the 
cone-shaped rock, about three feet high, which the water of the 
spring has formed by the deposits it has made in many centuries. 
The orifice at the summit of the rock, through which the water 
originally issued, is about eight or ten inches in diameter (as well 
as I can remember). In the year 1866, the proprietors of the 
spring, u convinced that by stopping the lateral outlet they could 
cause the waters to issue again from the mouth of the rock, they 
therefore employed a number of men to undermine the mound 
(rock), and with a powerful hoisting-derrick to lift it off and set it 
one side. 

Just below the mound were found four logs, two of which 
rested upon the other two at right angles, forming a curb. Under 
the logs were bundles of twigs resting upon the dark- brown or 
black soil of a previous swamp. Evidently some ancient seekers 
after health had found the spring in the swamp, and, to make it 
more convenient to secure water, had piled brush around it and 
then laid down the logs as a curb. 



CHAP. XXX.J 



OF AMERICA. 



309 



The rock, which weighed several tons, is composed of tufa and 
carbonate of lime, and was formed in the same manner as stalac- 
tites and stalagmites are formed. As the water flowed over the 
logs the evaporation of a portion of the carbonic acid gas caused 
the deposition of an equivalent quantity of insoluble carbonate of 
lime, which, layer by layer, built up the mound. A fragment of 
the rock which I possess contains leaves, hazel-nuts, and small 
shells, which, falling from time to time upon it, were encrusted 
and finally imprisoned in the stony mass. 

Below the rock the workmen followed the spring through four 
feet of tufa and muck ; then they came to a layer of solid tufa two 
feet thick ; then one foot of muck, in which they found another 
log. Below this were three feet of tufa ; and there, seventeen feet 
below the apex of the mound, they found the embers and char- 
coal of an ancient fire."* 

In making the Portland Canal, from Louisville to Portland be- 
low the rapids of the Ohio River, a similar relic was found, viz. : 
Ashes, coals, and partly-consumed logs, evidence that a fire had 
been made there at some very remote period, when the banks 
of the Ohio were much lower than at present. The average 
depth of the excavation of the canal was thirty-three feet. But 
I know not the depth at which this evidence of ancient occupa- 
tion was found. 

Whether the Indian family reached North or South America 
first, on the assumption that it had an Asiatic origin, we are 
left to a choice of probabilities. It is plain, however, that 
the physical considerations and the type of men in north- 
eastern Asia point to this section of Asia as the source, and 
to the Aleutian Islands as the probable avenue of this antecedent 
emigration. This is no new hypothesis. A belief in his Asiatic 
origin was one of the first conclusions which followed the dis- 
covery of the Indian, and a knowledge of his physical character- 
istics. Subsequent investigations have strengthened the grounds 
upon which this belief was based. 

It will furnish a not inappropriate conclusion to these articles 
to relate briefly the facts and reasons which support the inference 
of a derivation of the Indian family from northwestern Asia. 

In the first place the number of distinct types of mankind in 
Asia, contrasted with the single type, aside from the Eskimo, exist- 
ing in America, show conclusively that the Asiatic continent has 
been occupied by man much the longer of the two. The striking 



* "Saratoga and How to See It," by Dr. K. F. Dearborn. 



310 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XXX. 



affinities in physical characteristics between the Mongolian and 
Tungusian stocks of Asia and the Indian stocks of America, and 
the near approach of other Asiatic stocks to both, seem to compel 
us to assume an Asiatic origin for the American Indian, unless 
the independent creation of man in America is assumed. Sec- 
ondly, there are two existing avenues between the two continents, 
one of which, across the Straits of Behring, has been actually proven 
to be practicable by the Eskimo migration, and the other, by the 
Aleutian Islands, is rendered a probable route by the fact that most 
of these islands are now inhabited by a people of common de- 
scent, who have spread from island to island. Whether the Es- 
kimo had been forced northward in Asia by the pressure of cir- 
cumstances is immaterial, since it was necessary that the} r should 
be hyperborean in their habits to render possible their transit 
across the icy strait, which is about fifty miles wide where it is 
narrowest.* But it was not necessary that the ancestors of the 
American aborigines should have become hyperboreans in Asia 
to explain their emigration to America. The Aleutian Islands 
furnish a possible as well as a much more probable route. It is 
not to be supposed that it was a deliberate migration in members 
which brought the Ganowanianf family to America if the} r came 
from Asia, The natural obstacles presented to a transit by the 
Aleutian Islands lead to the inference that the migration must 
have been purely accidental, and limited, it is not unlikely, to a 
canoe-load of men and women. It may have been repeated at 
several different times in different ages, under similar circum- 
stances, but limited in each case to inconsiderable numbers. If 
such accidental immigrants chanced to be of different stocks, the 
later ones would make but a slight impression upon the first 
stock that reached America. These islands, the summits of a 
chain of submarine mountains, stretch continuously and substan- 
tially in sight of each other from the peninsula of Alaska to the 
Cape of Kamtchatka, with the following principal interruptions : 
The Amoukhta pass, separating two groups of these islands, is 

* The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia gives "thirty -nine or forty miles in breadth" 
in the narrowest part, viz. : From East Cape to Cape Prince of Wales. Three 
small islands lie in the middle channel of the Straits, the first bearing 26° south- 
east, twenty-four miles from the eastern promontory ; the next, which is the 
largest, lies six miles farther, in a northeast direction ; the third, and smallest, 
is ten miles distant, south by east. 

The Encyclopaedia Brittanica gives thirty -six miles as the width in the nar- 
rowest part of the Strait. 

| Proposed name for the American Indian family, formed from two words of 
the Seneca language, signifying bow and arrow. 



CHAP. XXX.] 



GP AMERICA. 



311 



about sixty miles across ; from the island Goreloi to the island of 
Semisopochnoi is the same distance ; from the latter to Scmitchi 
Island is about fifty miles, and from the island of Attou to 
Copper Island — which is much the widest interval between any 
two islands of the chain — is two hundred and thirty miles ; and 
from Behring' s Island, the last and one of the largest of the series, 
to Cape Kamtchatka on the Asiatic coast, is one hundred miles.* 
A migration by the way of these islands is not improbable, and 
there are two facts which create a presumption in favor of the oc- 
currence of such a migration by the mere accidents of the sea be- 
fore the lapse of many ages after Asia was overspread with inhabi- 
tants. The first is the ocean stream of the Asiatic coast — the 
counterpart of the Gulf stream of North America — which, rising in 
the South Pacific and flowing northward, skirts the shores of the 
Japanese and Kurulian Islands nearly to the cape of the Kamt- 
chatka, where it is deflected to the eastward and divides into two 
streams. One of these, following the coast, enters Behring Strait, 
but the other, the main stream, crosses the Pacific eastward along 
the south shores of the Aleutian Islands to Alaska, where it turns 
down the American coast. It is not entirely lost until it reaches 
the shores of California. This ocean stream might easily bear off 
canoemen, once thrown upon its current, from the Kurulian 
Islands, and from the coast of Asia to the Aleutian Islands. After 
Attou Island, which is but four hundred and forty miles from the 
nearest point in Asia, was gained, the problem of reaching Alaska 
would be substantially solved. f It would thus seem that an in- 

* " Map of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, U. S. Coast Survey Office." In 
these islands, when first discovered, more than sixty families were found whose 
language had no relation either to that of Kamtchatka or to any of the oriental 
languages of Asia. It is a dialect spoken in the other islands adjacent to America, 
which seems to indicate that they have been peopled by the Americans, and not 
by the Asiatics. They have no wood on these islands besides that which is 
floated to them by the sea, and this wood seems to come to them from the south, 
for the camphor-tree of Japan has been found on the coasts of these islands. — 
Rees' Ency. The Fox Islands, a part of the Aleutian, are inhabited by animals 
from America, such as bear, foxes, beaver, etc. 

f From east to west the Aleutian Islands are 1st, Behring, one hundred and 
four miles long, one hundred and ninety-two from Kamtchatka ; 2d, Copper, 
twenty -five miles long, east from Behring (distance not given) ; 3d, Attou, sixty 
miles long one hundred and eighty-eight miles from Copper Island ; 4th, 
Agattoo, six miles long, twenty miles from Attou ; 5th, Buldyr, six by ten 
miles, seventy miles from Agattoo. Then come Omnak, Oonalaska, Oonemak, 
next to Alaska. Neither the size nor distance from each other of these three 
last islands are given in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, from which the preceding 
has been taken. 



312 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXI. 



strumentality was provided in this ocean stream whereby the 
American continent might become accessible from Asia in the 
early ages of the human family. The second fact is the character 
and position of the Amoor, one of the great rivers of Asia, which 
stands in nearly the same relation to the northwestern section of 
that continent that the Columbia does to the northwestern portion 
of America. This river, from its fisheries, must have attracted 
inhabitants to its banks at a very early period in Asiatic history. 
Its occupation would, in due time, have led to boat navigation, 
to familiarity with the sea, to the exploration and occupation of 
the adjacent seacoast and islands, and would thus have prepared 
the way for peopling the Aleutian Islands in the manner stated. 
It is a striking fact that the Tungusian and Mongolian stocks, the 
nearest in type of the existing Asiatics to the American aborigines, 
still hold the Amoor river, upon which they have lived from time 
immemorial. 

In the third and last place, the system of consanguinity and 
affinity of the several Asiatic stocks agrees with that of the Ameri- 
can aborigines. Omitting all discussion of the results of a com- 
parison of systems, it may be stated that the system of the Seneca- 
Iroquois Indians of New York is identical not only in radical 
characteristics, but also in the greater portion of its minute de- 
tails with that of the Tamil people of South India. This identity 
in complicated and elaborate S}^stems is hardly accidental* 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Captain John Dundas Cochrane's Account of Nishney Kolymsk — Amusements — 
Cold Weather — Occupations of the People — Animals — Baron Wrangel — 
Trip to the Fair on the Aniuy — The Yukagiri — The Fortress— The Tchuk- 
chi — The Fair — Chess — Tchukchi Eeindeer — The Tchukchi Peninsula, 
Tchukchi. 

Captain John Dundas Cochrane, R. N., made in the years 
1820-21, a land journey from Dieppe, in France, to Nishney Ko- 
lymsk, on the river Kolyma, the most eastern river of importance 
of Asia that empties into the Frozen Ocean. He speaks of the 
Chukches thus : Nishney Kolymsk may be termed a large town 
in this part of the world, containing, as it does, nearly fifty dwell- 
ings, and about four hundred people (or eighty families), which 

* ' ' Indian Migrations, ' ' by Lewis H. Morgan, in 1 1 The Indian Miscellany. ' ' 



CHAP. XXXI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



313 



is three times the number of any place between it and Yakutsk (a 
distance of two thousand miles). It stands on the east side of 
an island in the Kolyma, about twenty-five miles long, and oppo- 
site to the junction of the river Aniuy. Formerly the town was 
eight miles farther down, but the bleakness of the situation, and 
it's consequent exposure to the northern blasts, induced its remo- 
val to its present site, where it is protected from them by a range 
of hills. The island is covered only with low brushwood, but re- 
ceives fine timber, which is floated down the river. No cultivation 
can, of course, be expected in a climate wherein scarcely a blade 
of grass is to be seen. The horses which do sometimes tarry in 
the vicinity for a few days' feed upon the tops, stumps, and bark 
of the bushes, or upon the moss. The inhabitants manage, not- 
withstanding, with great labor, to feed a couple of cows, though 
to do this they are obliged to bring the hay eight miles. They 
are mostly Cossacks, with half a dozen pedlers and three priests, 
the whole of whom carry on some traffic. 

On the morning of my arrival at Nishney Kolymsk, and while 
at breakfast, I received as a new-year's gift a couple of large fish 
in a frozen state, weighing each about two hundred pounds. 

Baron Wrangel's expedition I found in a state of much forward- 
ness, great exertions having been made in collecting dogs and 
drivers, and provisions, as well as in making new nartes, or sleds. 
I learned that he would depart from Kolyma in the month of 
March, in two divisions, one having for its object the solution of 
the question regarding the latitude and longitude of the North- 
east Cape of Asia, and the other a journey due north from the 
mouth of the Kolyma, in search of a real or supposed continent, 
or rather the continuation of Asia to where it is imagined by 
some to join the continent of America. I did not hesitate to vol- 
unteer my services, but in consequence of being a foreigner I found 
my services could not be accepted without special permission of 
the government. I therefore made up my mind to set out for the 
fair of the Tchukchi, and to try my fortune in getting a passage 
through their country, and so cross over Behring Straits for 
America. 

During the months of January and February (1821) we were 
variously employed, as the nature of the weather would allow, 
passing the time agreeably and happy enough. Among other 
things I brought up my journal, and worked some observations 
for the latitudes and longitudes of Nishney Kolymsk. Sometimes 
we joined in the amusements of the natives, and visited them in 
their feasts, which are very numerous, and at which there is a great 



314 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXI. 



consumption of liquor. The ice mountain was, of course, one of 
our amusements, and our time was far from hanging heavy. I 
descended it daily during the fetes. 

The weather proved exceedingly cold in January and February, 
but never so severe as ' to prevent our walks, except during those 
times when the wind was high ; it then became insupportable 
out of doors. Forty degrees of frost of Reaumur never appeared 
to affect us in calm weather so much as ten or fifteen during the 
time of a breeze. Yet to witness the aurora borealis I have re- 
peatedly quitted my bed in these extremes of cold, without shoes 
or stockings, and with no dress on but a parka, or frock. 

To prove that I do not magnify the extremes of cold in that part 
of the world, I beg to refer to Mr. Sauer's account of Billings's ex- 
pedition, and the present Admiral Saritcheff's account of the same, 
when 43° of Reaumur or 74° of Fahrenheit were repeatedly known. 
I will also add my testimony from experience to the extent of 42°. 
I have also seen the minute-book of a gentleman at Yakutsk, where 
47° of Reaumur were registered, equal to 84° of Fahrenheit. There 
can indeed be but little doubt that the local situation of the Koly- 
ma, bordering on the latitude of 70°, and almost the most easterly 
part of the continent of Asia, is a colder one than Melville Island or 
the centre of the American Polar coast. Okotsk, Idgiga, Yakutsk, 
Tomsk, and Tobolsk, are considered equally cold and exposed as 
the mouths of the Lena, Yana, or Kolyma, Even Irkutsk, about 
the latitude of London, has yearly a frost of 40° of Reaumur, or 
58° below the zero of Fahrenheit. However, I soon had reason to 
consider the coldest day as the finest, because it was then sure to 
be calm, and afford every excitement to exercise and cheerfulness. 

The occupation of the people of this part of the world natur- 
ally depends upon the season. Laying in wood for fire, hunting, 
and trading are the winter occupations, while fishing and fowling 
are almost the exclusive employment in spring and autumn ; sum- 
mer is generally the building time, the wood for which is generally 
floated down the Kolyma from Sredne Kolymsk. The women em- 
broider gloves, caps, boots, shoes, and various things in a neat 
manner. Farther on to the southward they also attend to the 
breeding of cattle. Fishing, however, may be termed the grand 
concern, employing, as it does, alike men, women, children and 
dogs. 

Formerly this part of the country was highly productive in furs, 
the Emperor receiving a tenth of each sort, which has at times 
amounted to as many as five thousand sables, but nowadays less 
than so many hundreds. The shores of the Icy Sea are still much 



CHAP. XXXI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



315 



frequented by the white, blue, and red fox, and near the woods 
valuable sables are still to be met with. In the rivers the vidra, 
or river-otter, is in much estimation. Upon the whole, however, 
it appears that the inhabitants look to the Tchuktchi for their 
winter clothing and most valuable fur trade. The animals of the 
chase seem to have been forced from the central to the extreme 
parts of Siberia, and thus the elk, reindeer, and argali, or wild 
sheep, are rarely met with in the commissariat. There are now 
more within reach of the few Yukagiri descendants who line the 
banks of the two Aniuys* and chase these animals beyond the 
frontiers. Game of the feathered kind is, nevertheless, highly 
abundant, such as swan, geese, ducks, woodcocks, bustards, and 
partridges. 

Baron Wrangel and his party leaving us on the 27th of Febru- 
ary, 1721, I attended him ten miles down the river, when we 
returned. The baron was escorted by twenty narts and two hun- 
dred dogs. Each nart carried about one thousand pounds weight, 
but in consequence of the early part of the winter having been 
employed in transporting provisions to the Great Baranov Cape, 
to the east of the mouth of the Kolyma, they will be enabled to 
proceed fully laden from that spot, as well round the northeast 
cape of Asia as to the northward, in search of strange lands ; they 
will also return to Cape Baranov to be again supplied with food, 
to enable them to regain this place — Nishney Kolymsk. 

On the 4th of March I left the Kolyma in company with Mr. 
Matiushkin, midshipman, and a few merchants whose narts were 
loaded with tobacco and iron utensils. The weather was fine, there 
being but 25° of Reaumur of frost, yet we had not gone more than 
fifteen miles before we were obliged to halt on the banks of a lake, 
being unable to make out the path from the depth and drift of the 
snow. Our route lay on the Aniuy, having left to the north the 
highlands which defend the town of Nishney Kolymsk. I passed 
the night very tolerably in the snow. My friend was repeatedly 
obliged to exercise himself during the night, for we were so unfor- 
tunately situated that no fire could have been kept in, even had 
there been fuel. The following day we passed through a thick 
forest of pines, in the greatest danger of broken heads, going with 
a velocity almost incredible, and at every descent of a hill dashing 
up against the trees. Thirteen dogs were provided for me. We 
made thirty-five miles in this manner, and reached the Little Aniuy, 
a considerable, rapid, and dangerous river. A charity yourt re- 



* The lowest tributaries of the Kolyma. 



316 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXI. 



ceived us for the night, and we fared very well. The lowlands 
which extend from the Kolyma to the eastward being now passed, 
we entered upon a more elevated country, and were cheered with 
meeting and overtaking a great number of sledges, whose owners ex- 
hibited the same smiling faces, the result, no doubt, of as sanguine 
hopes as those of the great merchants of London and Amsterdam 
on the eve or expectation of a great fair. The river, which has many 
islands in it. winds a great deal, and exhibits some fine scenery. 

The descendants of the Yukagiri inhabit the banks of the two 
rivers Aniuy, and serve as a neutral nation between the Russians 
and the Tchukchi. They were formerty a formidable and warlike 
people. They are now all but extinct as a pure race. They are, 
in fact, descendants of Russians who have intermarried with 
them. They are certainly the finest race of people I have seen in 
Siberia ; the men well proportioned, with open and manly coun- 
tenances ; the women are extremely beautiful. What their origin 
was it is now difficult to say, although they were, doubtless, of 
Asiatic origin, their features partaking of the Tartar aspect, to say 
nothing of their enmity to the Tchukchi, while they have a great 
friendship for the Yakuti, or Tongousi. 

The third day we reached an inhabited yourt where many of 
the merchants awaited us, as they could not go to the fair before 
a certain time. The wood on the Aniuy is of considerable growth 
for so northern a situation, but the root has seldom more than 
twenty inches depth. 

On the 8th of March we reached the fortress, the river bor- 
dered with the same elevated slate lands on the right and low flat 
on the left bank. At seven miles on this side the fortress the 
scenery begins to improve, and the fortress itself may be said to 
be a most romantic spot. It is distant from the Kolyma one hun- 
dred and fifty miles. There are twenty yourts, about two hun- 
dred people, and a large wooden building, fit for anything but de- 
fense. The whole stands upon an island surrounded by elevated 
and well-wooded hills. There is very little grass, but much moss. 
The view of the river is exceedingly picturesque, and the fortress 
is decidedly the most favorable place to reside in I have seen from 
Yakutsk, a distance of at least two thousand miles. 

The inhabitants on the banks of the river are not numerous, 
and subsist very scantily by hunting, there being few fish in the 
river. Elk, reindeer, and argali are what the people most depend 
upon. Formerly they were abundant, but are now much reduced, 
owing to the peopling of the country by the Russians, who hunt 
rather to exterminate the breed than to procure subsistence. 



chap: xxxi.] 



OF AMERICA. 



317 



Having settled ourselves in a small Yukagir yourt, Mr. Ma- 
tiushkin and 1 received a visit from one of the Tchuktchi, a most 
empty-countenanced and wild-looking savage. He entered the 
room where we were, tumbled himself down on a stool, smoked 
his pipe, and then quitted the room without once looking at or 
taking the least notice either of us or anything about us. 

I next day visited their camp, distant about two miles and a 
half. It consisted of three large and three small tents. The 
former contained the bulk of the Tchukchi people, and the 
latter were appropriated to the chiefs and more considerable 
people. The large tents were disgustingly dirty and offen- 
sive, exhibiting every species of grossness and indelicacy, but the 
smaller w T ere, on the contrary, very neat, clean and warm, although 
without a fire in thirty-five degrees of frost. Indeed, they were 
to me almost suffocating, being only eight feet long, five broad, 
and about three feet high, and contained three or four people 
huddled together in one bed, which was made of reindeer-skins, 
and the coverings lined with white foxes. The small tents are 
made also of the old and hard skins, doubled, so that the hair is 
both on the inside and the out. A large lamp with whale-oil, or 
fat, which serves them for a light, communicates also considerable 
warmth. On entering one of these small dwellings I found the chief 
and his wife perfectly naked, as was also a little girl, their daugh- 
ter, of about nine years old ; nor did they seem to regard our pres- 
ence, but ordered the daughter to proceed and prepare some rein- 
deer-meat for us, which she did in that state of nudity by a fire 
close to the tent. Having informed myself of the savage state in 
which they lived, I returned to the fortress. 

On our return to the fortress the fair was formally commenced 
by a harangue of the commissaries, declaring the terms, the tax, 
and the penalties. The fair was held upon the river Aniuy, oppo- 
site the fortress. Early in the morning the Tchuktchi arrive at 
the place of barter, and, forming a semicircle towards the fortress, 
the extremes of which reach to the edge of the ice, depose their 
furs upon their narts, the owners constantly remaining with 
them. In the meantime the Russians place their bags and bales 
of tobacco in the centre of the semicircle, and then begin to pa- 
rade and visit the Tchukchi, inquiring the prices, etc., by means 
of an interpreter. The work entirely falls upon the Russian, who 
drags behind him for many hours two hundred weight of tobacco 
before he can induce the Tchukchi to barter. 

It is ludicrous to stand upon the banks of the river and wait the 
appointed signal for commencing barter each morning. While 



318 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXI. 



the Tchukchi are quietly sitting on their narts, with their sleeves 
drawn back and their arms thrust into their bosoms, to keep them 
warm, the Russians, on the contrary, start pell-mell ; pots, pans, 
kettles, knives, swords, hatchets, scissors, needles, etc., are rattling 
in every direction; priests, officers, Cossacks and merchants, men, 
women and children, alike fantastically dressed, with articles of 
traffic, of which tobacco constituted the chief. A few bells, pipes 
and corals also serve to grace the dresses of the more wealthy and 
whimsical pedlers. 

The fair lasted seven days, which is three more than usual. At 
length finished, I prepared to depart for Nishney Kolymsk with 
many thanks to my venerable Yukagir host for all his kindness. 
I passed the time very agreeably at his house. He was a very 
good chess-player, and was fond of the game. His manner of 
playing added another instance to many I have witnessed that 
there is in various parts of the world little or no difference any- 
where in the moving of the pieces. I have played the game with 
Yakuti, Tongousi, and Yukagir, but the Tchukche laughed at me 
for such a childish employment of my time. I may remark, as a 
circumstance relative to the game of chess, and which has repeat- 
edly surprised me, that wherever a people recognize and play it 
they are infallibly Asiatics. Neither the Tchukchi nor the Ko- 
riaks understand anything of it, but all the Kamtchatdales and 
other Asiatics are familiar with it. 

The features of the Yukagiri lead me to suppose them Tartars, 
and not a race very distinct from the Yakuti. They are, however, 
almost Russified by intermarriage, and the question of their ori- 
gin is become difficult. There were at the fair two or three 
of the Chuanse or Chodynse, a tributary nation inhabiting the 
country between the two Aniuys and the Anadyr. Their features 
are also Asiatic. 

For the articles which were sold by the Russians the Tchukche 
brought four or five hundred sea-horse teeth 5 a few bear-skins, 
reindeer dresses, and white foxes, and these, with some frozen 
reindeer-meat, made the whole productions of their own country. 
The other articles of fur came from a nation on the American con- 
tinent called the Kargaules, two of whom were at the fair. They 
bear more nearly the features of the Tchukche than those of the 
hideous-mouthed inhabitants of Behring Strait, although with a 
browner or more dirty color. The furs brought and sent by them 
consist of many thousands of black, brown, blue, red and white 
foxes, marten and marten parks,* some beaver, river otter, bear, 

* Somewhat like a carter's frock. 



CHAP. XXXI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



319 



wolf, sea-dog, and sea-horse skins ; a few articles of warm clothing, 
and some ornaments carved out of sea-horse teeth, representing 
the animals common among them. 

There were this year (1821) at the fair, which is termed a good 
one, two hundred and fifty narts, five hundred reindeer, with 
fifty-eight men, sixty women, and fifty-six children. Those (rein- 
deer) which come to the fair return only to the river Teh a on, 
where they are exchanged for those which belong to and which 
had come from the Bay of St. Lawrence. Seventy-five and ninety 
days are required for them to perform the journey, which is about 
eight hundred versts, or five hundred miles. 

There were three chiefs at the fair ; first, Zebraskka (almost Ne- 
braska), who commands the tribes inhabiting the banks of the 
Tchaon, Packla, and Kvata rivers, as well as the country towards 
Shelatskoi Noss; second, Valetka, chief of the Belo Morsky 
Tchukchi, which tribe inhabits the eastern seacoast, from Cape 
North to the Bay of Klasheui ; third, Kocharga, who commands 
the Tchukskoi Noss, or East Cape tribe, who inhabit the Noss and 
the country from thence to the Bay of St. Lawrence. The first 
are wanderers, and live by their reindeer, which are employed for 
burden between the river Tchaon and the fair, and in the trade of 
sea-horse teeth. The second subsist almost entirely by fishing and 
hunting, added to a small tribute or toll of tobacco, which is paid 
by their southern neighbors for a free passage along their coast ;* 
they have no reindeer. The third tribe subsists by traffic and the 
breeding of reindeer, of which they have considerable herds, and 
are employed from the Bay of St. Lawrence to the banks of the 
Tchaon. There is also a fourth chief, who commands the Tchuk- 
chi of Anadyr Noss, a tribe who inhabit the country and banks 
of the Anadyr, and also subsist by traffic and the breeding of 
reindeer. These chiefs live equally distant from each other, about 
one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles, and carry on a sort 
of intercourse by means of the eastern coast Tchukchi, who are 
provided with baidares.^ 

The Tchukskoi Noss race are the most numerous ; those of the 
eastern coast the most warlike and hardy ; the Tchaon, or Shelat- 
skoi, are the most friendly, and those on the Anadyr are the richest. 
Their whole number cannot exceed four or five thousand." The 
Kargaoulas are represented by them as far more numerous, but 
the Tchukchi cannot count past a hundred, or ten tens; that is, 

* This kind of toll for free passage along a coast or river or through a strait 
is probably the oldest. 

f Baidares, a kind of Russian boat used on expeditions. 



320 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXI. 



their fingers ten times over. Each tribe has a different dialect of 
the same language, and all understand one another, though the 
dialects are extremely difficult to articulate. 

In the conversations I had with the toions, or chiefs (the same 
word is used in America, and in the same sense), I understood 
them to have no knowledge nor tradition of any land north of 
theirs; that the sea is for ten months so frozen that nothing but 
mountains of ice are visible, and that during the months of August 
and September the ice breaks up, but not in such a manner as to 
admit a passage for vessels. They told me also that large herds of 
reindeer roam from cape to cape, but do not come from the north 
beyond the sea. To the west of Shelatskoi Noss, termed by them 
Errie (a word also of the same import as in America, signifying a 
great sea or lake),* they say there is a large and very deep bay, 
into which the Packla and Tchaon discharge their waters, and in 
this bay two islands, the one called Ayon, small, and near the 
Noss, abounding in sea-horse teeth ; the other, Illerie, large, and 
producing fine moss for the reindeer. The latter has some few 
residents, both in winter and summer ; in the former season catch- 
ing and killing wild reindeer for the fair, in the latter feeding 
the tame reindeer. I was also told that half way across the south 
side of the bay there is a high mountain of rock, named since by 
Baron Wrangel Cape Matiushkin — that from their habitation on 
the Tchaon and Packla rivers to Shelatskoi Noss it is only one 
day's journey with reindeer. Shelatskoi Noss does not, by their 
report, run fa,r into the sea, but is elevated, and has a narrow pas- 
sage between it and their country — in truth an isthmus, which 
forms a small bay, without islands, to the east of the Noss. The 
Noss is formed by the Tchaon and Packla Rivers on the west, and 
the Kvata and Ekakta on the east ; and the Tchaon bay by Shelats- 
koi Noss and the island Illerie, which latter will, of course, be 
understood as the island of Sobedei. The Pojitcha is represented 
as not the same with the Anadyr, but a small yet rapid stream, 
which from the east enters the Tchaon ; and, lastly, that the whole 
of their country is so mountainous and barren, and so deep in 
snow, that laden reindeer cannot come straight from the Bay of 
St. Lawrence, but are obliged to coast along the valleys on the 
shore until they reach the Packla, when their route changes from 
northwest to southwest. 

They have no knowledge nor tradition of any nation called the 
Skellagers, but they recognize the word Kopai, as applicable to 

* May not Erie (lake) have signified a great lake, or people living on a great 
lake, instead of Cat, or might it not have signified either ? 



CHAP. XXXI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



321 



the name of a person, in their language. They know nothing, 
either, of their origin or first settlement in the country, nor of the 
Tartar nations subject to Russia, nor do they understand any Tar- 
tar word. Their language bears no affinity to the Asiatic, though 
it is understood by the Koriaks. The features of the Tchukchi, 
their manners and customs, pronounce them of American origin, 
of which the shaving of their heads, puncturing of their bodies, 
wearing large ear-rings, their independent and swaggering way of 
walking, their dress and superstitious ideas, are also evident proofs ; 
nor is it less than probable that the Esquimaux and other tribes 
of Arctic Americans may have descended from them, for several 
words of their language are alike, and their dress perfectly similar. 
That New Siberia has been inhabited there is not a doubt, many 
huts, or yourts, still existing, and there are traditions in Siberia 
of tribes having been compelled, from persecution, the smallpox, as 
well as from disease, to quit their lands for those beyond the seas. 

The whole of them are ingenious, cunning, industrious, and ex- 
cellent mechanics. They have no religion, but a sort of regard for 
some sorcerers or people held by them in veneration. They are 
allowed to retain five wives, whom they ma} 7 put to death upon 
discovery of any criminal intercourse, holding also the power of 
compelling them to such criminal intercourse— an act by no means 
unfrequent when the husband is in want of an heir or son.* 

They drink tea, are exceedingly fond of sugar. Tobacco is their 
great commodity, which the} 7 eat, chew, smoke, and snuff at the 
same time. I have seen boys and girls of nine or ten years of age 
put a large leaf of tobacco in their mouths without permitting any 
saliva to escape ; nor will they put aside the tobacco should meat 
be offered them, but continue consuming both together.f 

My return to Kolyma^ occupied me only two days. I was most 
happy to meet with the Baron \V ran gel, who had returned from 
his expedition round Shelatskoi Noss. I received from him the 
following account,§ which proves that the information I had de- 
rived from the Tchukchi was perfectly correct,|| 

* The greatest compliment an early Indian eonld pay a stranger was to present 
him, temporarily, one of his wives. Intercourse with a stranger, under such cir- 
cumstances, was not considered criminal, but was, without the husband's consent. 

f The prevalent use of tobacco among the ancient inhabitants of North America 
is evidenced by the pipes so frequently found in ancient mounds. 

1 Kolyma," written Colima, gives the name of a province in Mexico. 

\ I do not insert the account, but merely the above statement of Cochrane, to 
confirm the truth of what he has stated. Besides, in the account of the voyage of 
the Vega will be found a description of the coast explored by Baron Wrangel. 

|| " Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Bussia and Siberian Tartary," 
etc., by Capt. John Dundas Cochrane, R. X. 

21 



322 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXII. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Voyage of the Vega — The Northern Coast of Asia — The Chukche — The North- 
ernmost Cape of Asia — The Onkilon— The Wintering of the Vega — The 
Settlements of the Chukche — The Seacoast — The Chukche Trade and 
Travel — Mammoth Remains. 

On the 4th of July. 1878, a Swedish naval expedition left the 
harbor of Gothenburg, Sweden, to make the passage from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific Ocean around the north coast of Asia. On the 
19th of August two of the vessels, the steamers Vega and Lena, 
anchored in a bay formed in Cape Chelyuskin, the most northerly 
cape of Asia, and thus the Swedes reached the goal which for 
centuries had been the object of unsuccessful struggles. 

According to the map accompanying the account of the Vega's 
voyage, the latitude of Cape Chelyuskin is about 77° 45', and there- 
fore more than eleven degrees farther north than Behring Strait, 
which is intersected by the 66th°. Cape Baranov was passed on 
the night before the 5th of September, the mouth of Chaun Ba}^ 
on the night before the 6th of September, and Cape Chelagskoi 
was reached on the 6th at 4 o'clock p. m. This cape is four degrees 
farther north than Behring Strait. 

The account says : " In the whole stretch from Yugor Schar to 
Cape Chelagskoi we had seen neither men nor human habitations, 
if I except the old uninhabited hut between Cape Chelyuskin and 
Chatonga. But on the 6th of September, when we were a little 
way off Cape Chelagskoi, two boats were sighted. The boats were 
of skin, built in the same way as the 1 umiaks,' or woman-boats, 
of the Eskimo. They were fully laden with laughing and chatter- 
ing natives, men, women, and children. 

The north coast of Siberia is now, with the exception of its 
westernmost and easternmost parts, a desert. In the west there 
projects between the mouth of the Obi and the southern part of 
the Kara Sea the peninsula of Zalmal, which, by its remote posi- 
tion, its grassy plains, and rivers abounding in fish, appears to 
form the earthly paradise of the Samoyed of the present day. 
Some hundred families belonging to this race wander about here 
with their numerous reindeer herds. During winter they with- 
draw to the interior of the country, or southwards, and the coast 
is said then to be uninhabited. This is the case both summer and 
winter, not only with Beli Ostrov and the farthest portion of the 
peninsula between the Obi and the Yenisej (Mattesal), but also 



CHAP. XXXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



323 



with the long stretch of coast between the mouth of the Yenisej 
and Chaun Bay. During the voyage of the Vega, in 1878, we did 
not see a single native. No trace of man could be discovered at 
the places where we landed, and though for a long time we sailed 
quite near land, we saw from the sea only a single house on the 
shore, the wooden hut on the east side of Chelyuskin peninsula. 
Russian simoves and native encampments are indeed still found on 
the rivers some distance from their mouths, but the former coast 
population has withdrawn to the interior of the country or died 
out, and the north coast of Asia first begins to be inhabited at 
Chaun Bay. 

The natives in the boats indicated by their cries and gesticula- 
tions that they wished to come on board. The engine was 
stopped, the boats lay to, and a large number of skin-clad, bare- 
headed beings climbed up over the gunwale in a way that clearly 
indicated that they had seen vessels before. A lively talk began, 
but we soon became aware that none of the crew of the boats or 
the vessel knew any language common to both, but signs were 
employed as far as possible. It was remarkable that none of them 
could speak a single word of Russian, while a boy could count 
tolerably well up to ten in English, which shows that the natives 
here came in closer contact with the American whalers than with 
Russian traders. They acknowledged the name chukch or chautchee. 

Many of them were tall, well-grown men. They were clothed 
in close-fitting skin trousers and " pesks," or reindeer-skin. The 
head was bare, the hair always clipped short, with the exception 
of a small fringe in front, where the hair had a length of four cen- 
timetres and was combed down over the brow. Some had a cap 
of a sort used by the Russians at Chabarova, stuck into a belt be- 
hind, but they appeared to consider the weather still too warm for 
the use of this head-covering. The hair of most of them was 
bluish-black and exceedingly thick. The women were tattooed 
with black and bluish-black lines on the brow and nose, a num- 
ber of similar lines on the chin, and, finally, some embellishments 
on the cheeks. The type of the face did not strike one as so un- 
pleasant as that of the Samoyads or Eskimo. Some of the young- 
girls were even not absolutely ugly. In comparison with the Sa- 
moyads they were even rather cleanly, and had a beautiful, almost 
reddish- white, complexion. Two of the men were quite fair. 
Probably they were descendants of Russians, who, for some reason 
or other, as prisoners of war or fugitives, had come to live among 
the Chukches, and had been nationalized by them. 

In a little while we continued our voyage, after the Chukches 



324 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXII. 



had returned to their boats, evidently well pleased with the gifts 
they had received. 

On the 7th of September we steamed the whole day along the 
coast in a pretty open ice. At night we lay to at a floe. In the 
morning we found ourselves so surrounded by ice and fogs that, 
after several unsuccessful attempts to advance, we were compelled 
to lie to. When the fog lifted so much that the vessel could be 
seen from the land we were again visited by a large number of 
natives, who by signs invited us to land and visit their tents. As 
it was impossible immediately to continue the voyage I accepted 
the invitation. 

We were received everywhere in a friendly way. and even of- 
fered whatever the house afforded. At the time, the supply of 
food was abundant. In one tent reindeer-beef was being boiled 
in a large cast-iron pot. At another two recently-shot or slaugh- 
tered reindeer were being cut in pieces. At a third an old woman 
was employed in taking out of the paunch of the reindeer the 
green spinage-like contents and cramming them in a seal-skin 
bag, evidently to be preserved for green food during winter. 
Other seal-skin sacks, filled with train-oil, stood in rows along the 
walls of the tent. In all the tents were found seals cut in pieces. 
At one tent lay two fresh walrus heads, with large, beautiful 
tusks. According to all travellers, they pay the walrus-head a sort 
of worship. 

Children were met in great numbers, healthy and thriving. In 
the inner tent the older children went nearly naked, and I saw 
them go out from it without shoes or other covering and run be- 
tween the tents on the hoar frost-covered ground. The children 
were treated with marked kindness, and the older ones were never 
heard to utter an angry word. 

No tents were met with in the neighborhood of the vessel's an- 
chorage, but at many places along the beach there were seen marks 
of old encampments, sooty-soiled stones which had been used in 
the erection of tents, broken household articles, and. above all. re- 
mains of the bones of the seal, reindeer, and walrus. Near the 
place where the tents had stood were discovered some small 
mounds containing burnt bones. The cremation had been so 
complete that only a human tooth could be found. After crema- 
tion the remains of the bones and the ashes had been collected in 
an excavation and covered first with turf and then with small 
stones. The encampment struck me as having been abandoned 
only a few years ago, and even the collection of bones did not ap- 
pear to me to be old. But we ought to be very cautious when we 



CHAP. XXXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



325 



endeavor, in the Arctic region, to estimate the age of an old en- 
campment, because in judging of the changes which the surface 
of the earth undergoes with them we are apt to be guided by our 
experience from more southern regions. To how limited an ex- 
tent this experience may be utilized in the high north is shown by 
Rink's assertion that in Greenland, at some of the huts of the Nor- 
wegian colonists, which have been deserted for centuries, footpaths 
can still be distinguished, an observation to which I would 
scarcely give credence until I had myself seen some similar at the 
site of a house in the bottom of Jacob's Haven ice-fiord, in north- 
western Greenland, which had been abandoned for one or two 
centuries. Here footpaths, as sharply defined as if they had 
been trampled yesterday, ran from the ruins in different direc- 
tions. 

During the night before the 10th of September the surface of 
the sea was covered with a very thick sheet of newly-frozen ice, 
which was broken up again in the neighborhood of the vessel by 
blocks of old ice drifting about. The pack itself appeared to 
have scattered a little ; we therefore weighed anchor to continue 
our voyage. 

The 12th of September, when we had passed Irkaipij, or Cape 
North, a good way, we fell in with so close ice that there was no 
possibility of penetrating farther. We were therefore compelled 
to return, and were able to make our way with great difficulty 
among the closely-packed masses of drift ice. Here the vessel 
was anchored near the northernmost spur of Irkaipij. She was 
removed and anchored anew in a little bay open to the north, 
which was formed by two rocky points jutting out from the main- 
land. Unfortunately we were detained here until the 18th of 
September. It was this involuntary delay which must be consid- 
ered the main cause of our wintering.* 

Irkaipij is the northernmost promontory in that part of Asia seen 
by Cook in 1778. It was therefore called by him Cape North, It 
is incorrect, for the northernmost cape of Siberia is Cape Chelyuskin. 
The northernmost in the land east of the Lena is Cape Svjatoinos ; 
the northernmost in the stretch of coast east of Chaun Bay is Cape 
Chelagskoj. Cape North ought therefore to be replaced by the 
original name, Irkaipij, which is well known to all the natives be- 
tween Chaun Bay and Behring Strait. 

On the neck of land which connects Irkaipij with the mainland 

* On September the 28th the Vega was ice-bound at Kolyutschin Bay, but 
long after that there was still an open water on the coast four or five kilometers 
from the vessel. 



326 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXII. 



there was, at the time of our visit, a village consisting of sixteen 
tents. We saw here also ruins, viz.. the remains of a large number 
of house-sites which belonged to a race called Onkilon. who for- 
merly inhabited these regions, and some centuries ago were driven 
by the Chukches, according to tradition, to some remote islands in 
the Polar Sea. The refuse heaps contained implements of stone 
and bone, among which were stone axes, which, after lying two 
hundred and fifty years in the earth, were still fixed to their handles 
of wood or stone. Even the thongs with which the axes had been 
bound fast to or wedged into the handles were still remaining. The 
tusks of the walrus had. to the former inhabitants of the place, as 
to the Chukches of the present, yielded a material used for spear- 
heads, bird-arrows, fish-hooks, ice-axes, etc. Walrus-tusks, more 
or less worked, were found in the excavations in great abundance. 
The bones of the whale had also been employed on a great scale, 
but we did not find any large pieces of mammoths' tusks — an in- 
dication that the race was not in any intimate contact with the 
inhabitants of the region to the westward, so rich in remains of 
the mammoth. 

Remains of old dwellings were found, even at the highest points, 
among the stone mounds of Irkaipij, and here, perhaps, was the 
last asylum of the Onkilon race. At many places on the moun- 
tain-slopes were seen large collections of bones, consisting partly 
of a large number (at one place up to fifty) of bears' skulls over- 
grown with lichens, laid in circles, with the nose inward ; partly 
of the skulls of reindeer, Polar bear, and walrus, mixed together 
in a less regular circle, in the midst of which reindeer-horns were 
found set up. Along with the reindeer-horns was found the coro- 
nal bone of an elk, with portions of the horns still attached. No 
portions of human skeletons were found in the neighborhood. 
These places are sacrificial places which the one race has inherited 
from the other. " 

Wrangel gives the following account of the tribe which lived 
here in former times : 

" As is well known, the seacoast at Anadyr Ba} T is inhabited by 
a race of men who by their bodily formation, dress, language, dif- 
fer manifestly from the Chukches, and call themselves Onkilon — 
seafolks. In the account of Captain Billings' journey through the 
country of the Chukches he shows the near relationship the lan- 
guage of this coast-tribe has to that of the Aleutians* at Kadyak. 

* As inhabiting or related to the inhabitants of these Aleutian Islands, and 
islanders being seafaring, may not the Onkilon "seqfdlk" have derived their 
name from these circumstances ? 



CHAP. XXXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



327 



who are of the same primitive stem as the Greenlanders. Tradi- 
tion relates that upwards of two hundred years ago these Onkilon 
occupied the whole of the Chukche coast from Cape Chelagskoj to 
Behring Strait, and, indeed, we still find along the whole of this 
stretch remains of their earth huts, which must have been very 
unlike the present dwellings of the Chukches ; they have the form 
of small mounds, one-half sunk in the ground, and closed above 
with whale-ribs, which are covered with thick layers of earth. A 
violent quarrel between Krachoj, the chief of these North Asiatic 
Eskimo, and an errim, or chief, of the reindeer Chukche, broke out 
into an open feud. Krachoj drew the shorter straw, and found 
himself compelled to fly and leave the country with his people. 
Since then the whole coast has been desolate and uninhabited. 

Of the emigration of these Onkilon, the inhabitants of the vil- 
lage Irkaipij, where Krachoj appears to have lived, narrated the 
following story : He had killed a Chukche errim, and was there- 
fore eagerly pursued by the son of the murdered man, whose pur- 
suit he for a considerable time escaped. Finally Krachoj believed 
that he had found a secure asylum on the rock at Irkaipij, where 
he fortified himself behind a kind of natural wall, which can still 
be seen. But the young Chukche errim, driven by the desire to 
avenge his father's death, finds means to make his way within the 
fortification and kills Krachoj 's son. Although the blood-revenge 
was now probably complete according to the prevailing idea, 
Krachoj must have feared a further pursuit by his unrelenting 
enemy ; for, during the night, he lowers himself with thongs from 
his lofty asylum nearly overhanging the sea, enters a boat which 
waits for him at the foot of the cliff, and, in order to lead his pur- 
suers astray, steers first towards the east, but at nightfall turns to 
the west, reaches Schalanrov Island, and there fortifies himself 
in an earth hut, whose remains we have seen. Here he then 
collected all the members of his tribe, and fled with them in fif- 
teen 1 baydars ' to the land whose mountains the Chukches assure 
themselves they can, in clear sunshine, see from Cape Yakan. 

During the following winter a Chukche related to Krachoj dis- 
appeared in addition with his family and reindeer, and it is sup- 
posed that he, too, betook himself to the land beyond the sea. 
With this another tradition agrees, which was communicated to 
us by the inhabitants of Kolyutschin Island, for an old man 
informed me that during his grandfather's lifetime a ' baydar ' 
with seven Chukches, among them a woman, had ventured too 
far out to sea. After they had long been driven hither and thither 
by the wind, they stranded, in a country unknown to them, 



328 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXII. 



whose inhabitants struck the Chukches themselves as coarse and 
and brutish. The shipwrecked men were all murdered ; only the 
woman was saved, was very well treated, and taken round the 
whole country and shown to the natives as something rare and 
remarkable. So she came at last to the Korgauts, a race living 
on the American coast at Behring Strait, where she found means 
to escape to her own tribe. This woman told her countrymen 
much about her travels and adventures. Among other things she 
said she had been in a great land which lay north of Kolyutchin 
Island, stretched far to the east, and was probably connected with 
America. This land was inhabited by several races of men ; those 
living in the west resembled the Chukches in every respect, but 
those living in the east were so wild and brutish that they scarcely 
deserved to be called men. The whole account, both of the woman 
herself and of the narrators of the tradition, is mixed up with so 
many improbable adventures, that it would scarcely be worthy of 
any attention were it not remarkable for its correspondence with 
the history of Krachoj." 

When Wrangel wrote that, he did not believe in the existence 
of the land which afterwards obtained the name of Wrangel's 
Land. Now we know that the land spoken of by tradition actually 
exists, and therefore there is much that even tells in favor of its 
extending as far as to the archipelago on the north coast of 
America. 

Between us and the present inhabitants of the Chukche village 
at Irkaipij there soon arose very friendly relations. Here, as in 
all Chukche villages, which we afterward visited, absolute anarchy 
prevailed. At the same time the greatest unanimity reigned in 
the headless community. Children, healthy and strong, tenderly 
cared for by the inhabitants, were found in large numbers. A 
good word to them was sufficient to pave the way for a friendly 
reception in the tent. The women were treated as the equals of 
the men, and the wife was always consulted by the husband 
when a more important bargain than usual was to be made; 
many times it was carried through only after the giver of advice 
had been bribed with a handkerchief. The articles which the 
men purchased were immediately committed to the wife's keep- 
ing. One of the children had round his neck a band of pearls, 
with a Chinese coin having a square hole in the middle, suspended 
from it ; another bore a perforated American cent piece. None 
knew a word of Russian ; but here, too, a youngster could count 
ten in English. They also knew the word "ship." 

On the evening of the 23d of September we lay to at ground-ice 



CHAP. XXXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



329 



in a pretty large opening of the ice field. This opening closed 
during the night, so that on the 24th and 25th we could make hut 
very little progress, but on the 26th we continued our course to 
Cape Onman. The natives who came on board here give the place 
that name. 

On the 27th*we continued our course to Kolyutschin Bay. The 
mouth of the bay was filled with very closely packed drift-ice, 
which had gathered round the island situated there, which was 
inhabited by a large number of Chukche families. The vessel 
was anchored to an ice-floe near the eastern shore of the fiord. 

I made an excursion on land. In the course of it Johnsen was 
sent to the top of the range of heights which occupied the inte- 
rior of the promontory, in order to get a view of the state of the 
ice farther to the east. I was wandering about along with my 
comrades on the slopes near the beach when Johnsen came down. 
He informed us that from the top of the height one could hear 
bustle and noise and see fires at an encampment on the other side 
of the headland. I had a strong desire to go thither, in order, as 
I thought, "to make a farewell visit to the Chukches," for I was 
quite certain that on some of the following days we should sail 
into the Pacific. None of us then had an idea that we would for 
the next ten months be experiencing a winter at the pole of cold, 
frozen-in in an unprotected road, under almost continual snow- 
storms, and with a temperature which often sank below the freez- 
ing point of mercury. 

When on the following day, the 28th of September, 1878, we had 
sailed past the headland which bounds Kolyutschin Bay on the 
east, the channel next the coast became suddenly shallow. The 
depth was too small for the Vega, for which we had now to seek 
a course among the blocks of ground-ice and fields of drift-ice in 
the offing. The night's frost had bound them so firmly together 
that the attempt failed. We were thus compelled to lie to near 
ground-ice. 

The fragile ice-sheet which on the 28th of September bound 
together the ground-ice, and hindered our progress, increased 
daily in strength under the influence of severer and severer cold, 
until it was melted by the summer heat of the following year. 
Long after we were beset, however, there was still open water on 
the coast four or five kilometres from our winter haven. 

Assured that a few hours of southerly winds would be sufficient 
to break up the belt of ice, scarcely a Swedish mile (6.64 English 
miles) in breadth that barred our way, I was not at first uneasy 
at the delay, of which we took advantage to make short excur- 



330 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXII. 



sions on land and holding converse with the inhabitants. First 
when day after day passed without any change, it became clear 
to me that we must make preparation for wintering just on the 
threshold between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, it was an un- 
expected disappointment, which it was the more difficult to bear 
with equanimity, as it was evident that we would have avoided it 
if we had come some hours earlier to the eastern side of the Koly- 
utshin Bay. There were numerous occasions during the preceding 
part of our voyage in which these hours might have been saved. 

The position of the vessel was by no means very secure, for 
the Vega when frozen in did not lie at any haven, but was only 
anchored behind ground-ice which had stranded in a depth of 
nine and a half metres, fourteen hundred metres from land, in a 
road which was quite open true N. 74° W. by North to East. The 
Vega was anchored the first time on the 28th of September at 
some small ice-blocks which had stranded two hundred metres 
nearer the land, but was removed the following day from that 
place because there were only a few inches of water under the 
keel. 

When the Vega was beset, the sea near the coast was covered 
with newly-formed ice too thin to bear a foot-passenger, but 
thick enough to prevent the passage of a boat. In the offing lay, 
as far as the eye could see, closely-packed drift ice, which was 
bound together so firmly by the newly-formed ice that it was vain 
to endeavor to force a passage. Already by the 2d of October it 
was possible to walk upon the newly-formed ice nearest the ves- 
sel, and on the 3d of October the Chukches came on board on 
foot. 

The ground-ice to which the Vega was moored the 29th ot 
September, and under which she lay during the course of the 
winter, was about forty metres long, twenty-five broad, and its 
highest point above the surface of the water six metres. It gave 
the vessel good shelter. 

The winter haven was situated in 67° 4' 49" north latitude, and 
173° 23' 2" longitude west of Greenwich, 1.4 kilometres from land. 
The distance from the East Cape was 120', and from Point Hope, 
near Cape Lisburn, on the American side, 180 7 . 

The sandy neck of land which on the side next the vessel di- 
vided the lagoons from the sea was bestrewed with colossal bones 
of the whale and with the refuse of the Chukches who had lived 
and wandered about there for centuries ; and, besides, with por- 
tions of the skeletons of the seal and walrus, with excreta of men, 
dogs, birds, etc. The region was among the most disagreeble I 



CHAP. XXXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



331 



have seen in any of the parts inhabited by fishing Lapps, 8a- 
moyads, Chukches, or Eskimo. When the Vega was beset there 
were two Chukche villages on the neighboring beach, of which 
the one nearest our winter haven was called Pitlekaj. It con- 
sisted at first of seven tents, which, in consequence of want of 
food, their inhabitants moved gradually, in the course of the win- 
ter, to a region near Behring Strait, where fish were more abun- 
dant. At removal only the most indispensable articles were 
taken along, because there was an intention of returning at that 
season of the year when the chase again becomes more productive. 
The other encampment, Yinretlen, lay nearer the cape, towards 
Kolyutschin Bay, and reckoned at the beginning of our wintering, 
likewise, seven tents, whose inhabitants appeared in better circum- 
stances than those of the Pitlekaj. They had, during the autumn, 
made a better catch and collected a greater stock. Only some of 
them, accordingly, removed during winter. 

The following encampments lay at a somewhat greater distance 
from our winter quarters, but so near, however, that we were 
often visited by their inhabitants. 

Pedlin, on the eastern shore of Kolyutschin Bay, four tents. 

Kolyutschin, on the island of the same name, twenty-five tents. 
This village was not visited by any member of the Vega expe- 
dition. 

Riraitinop, situated six kilometres east of Pitlekaj, three tents ; 
Irgunnuk, seven kilometers east of Pitlekaj, ten tents, of which, 
however, in February only four remained. The inhabitants of 
the others had for the winter sought a better fishing-place farther 
eastward. 

The number of the persons who belong to each tent was diffi- 
cult to make out, because the Chukches were constantly visiting 
each other for the purpose of gossip and talk On an average it 
may perhaps be put at five or six persons. Including the inhabi- 
tants of Kolyutschin Island there thus lived about three hundred 
natives in the neighborhood of our winter quarters. 

When the natives observed us there was immediately a great 
commotion among them. Men, women, children and dogs were 
seen running up and down the beach in eager confusion. At last 
a boat was got to a lane clear of ice, or only covered with a thin 
sheet that ran from the shore to the neighborhood of the vessel. 
In this a large skin-boat was put out, which was filled brimful of 
men and women. They rowed immediately to the vessel, and on 
reaching it most of them climbed without the least hesitation over 
the gunwale with jests and laughter, and the cry anoaj, anoaj 



332 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXII. 



(good day, good day). Our first meeting with the inhabitants of 
this region, where we afterwards passed ten months, was on both 
sides very hearty, and formed the starting-point of a very friendly 
relation between the Chukches and ourselves, which remained un- 
altered during our stay. 

On board, the vessel's tent-covered deck soon became a veritable 
reception-room for the whole population of the neighborhood. 
Dog-team after dog-team stood all day in rows, or, more correctly, 
lay snowed-up before the ice-built flight of steps to the deck of 
the Vega, patiently waiting for the return of the visitors or for the 
pemmican I now and then promptly ordered to be given the 
hungry animals. The report of the arrival of the remarkable for- 
eigners must, besides, have spread with great rapidity, for we soon 
had visits even from distant settlements, and the Vega finally be- 
came the resting-place at which every passer-by stopped with his 
dog-team for some hours. 

All who called on board were allowed to go about, without let 
or hindrance, on our deck, which was encumbered with a great 
many things. We had not, however, to lament the loss of the 
merest trifle. Honesty was as much at home here as in the homes 
of the reindeer Lapps. On the other hand, they soon became very 
troublesome by their beggary. Nor did they fail to take all pos- 
sible advantage of what they doubtless considered the great in- 
experience of the Europeans. Small deceptions in this way were 
evidently not looked upon as blameworthy, but as meritorious. 
Sometimes, for instance, they sold us the same thing twice. They 
were always liberal in promises, which they never intended to 
keep, and often gave deceptive accounts of articles which were 
exposed for sale. None of the natives in the neighborhood of the 
Vega's winter station professed the Christian religion, none of them 
spoke any European language, though one or two knew a couple 
of English words, and a Russian word of salutation. 

On the 20th of February three large Chukche sledges, laden 
with goods and drawn by sixteen or twenty dogs, stopped at 
the Vega. They said they came from the eastward, and were 
on their way to the market in the neighborhood of Nischni 
Kolymsk. 

In the beginning of March there passed us a large number of 
sledges laden with reindeer-skins, and drawn by eight to ten dogs 
each. These trains were on a commercial journey from Irkaipij 
to Pak, on Behring Strait. We found among the foremen many 
of our acquaintances from the preceding autumn. Conversation 
during such visits became very lively and went on with little hin- 



CHAP. XXXII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



333 



drance, since two of us were now somewhat at home in the 
Chukche language. 

Sledges of considerable size, drawn by reindeer, began after the 
middle of March to pass the Vega in pretty large numbers. They 
were laden with reindeer-skins and goods bought at the Russian 
market-places, and intended for barter at Behring Strait. 

The reindeer Chukches are better clothed and appear to be in 
better circumstances, and more independent than the coast 
Chukches, or, as they ought to be called in correspondence with 
the former name, the dog Chukches. As every one owns a reindeer 
herd, all must follow the nomad mode of living, but at the same 
time they carry on traffic between the savages in the northernmost 
parts of America and the Russian fur-dealers in Siberia, and many 
of them pass their whole lives in commercial journeys. The prin- 
cipal market is held annually during the month of March, on an 
island in the river Little Anjui, two hundred and fifty versts from 
Nischni Kolymsk. The bargain goes on in accordance with a 
normal price-list, mutually agreed upon by the Russian merchants 
and the oldest of the Chukches. At such markets there is said to 
be considerable confusion, to judge by the spirited description 
which Wrangel gives of it. This description, however, refers to 
the customs that prevailed sixty years ago. 

Besides the traders, a large number of Chukches from Kolyuts- 
chin Island and other villages to the west travelled past us with 
empty sledges to which were harnessed only a few dogs. They 
returned in the course of a few days with their sledges fully 
laden with fish, which they said they had caught to the east- 
ward. 

On the 19th of April, at four o'clock a.m., the hunter Johnsen 
and I started for a short excursion eastward along the coast, with a 
view to pay a visit to the much frequented fishing station, Xajts- 
kaj, where our old friends from Pitlekaj had settled. At six o'clock 
a.m. we reached Rirajtinap, which formerly consisted of a great 
many tents, now had only one tent, Notti's, and it was poor enough. 
Among household articles in the tent I noticed a face-mask of 
wood, less shapeless than those which, according to Whymper's 
drawings, are found among the natives along the river Youcon, in 
the territory of Alaska; and, according to Dr. Simpson, among the 
West Eskimo, I learned afterwards that this mask came from Pak, 
Behring Strait, whither it was probably carried from the opposite 
American shore. 

The village Irgunnuk is from three to four hundred metres from 
Rirajtonop, and consists of five tents, one of which two days be- 



334 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXII. 



fore had been removed from Yinretlen. The tents are, as usual, 
placed on earthy eminences. 

The coast from Sigunnuk to Najtskaj runs in a straight line, is 
low, and only now and then interrupted by small earthy emi- 
nences, which all bear traces of old dwellings. Each of these 
heights has its special name. At noon we reached Najtskaj. 

The day after our arrival at Najtskaj we visited the village 
Tjapka, which lies at a distance of six kilometres. The village 
contains thirteen tents, some of which are more roomy and better 
built than any Chukche tent I had previously seen. We lodged 
in a tent which belonged to Erere, a friendly man, whose face was 
always cheerful. His sleeping-chamber was so large that it could 
hold more than one family. We found the inmates there com- 
pletely naked, Erere's wife not excepted. 

Erere had five children. In all the tents which I have visited 
I have inquired the number of children. Only two or three wives 
had more than three ; the average may be estimated at two. 

In the beginning of July the ground became free of snow, and 
we could now form an idea of how the region looked in summer 
in which we passed the winter. Far away in the south the land 
rose with terrace-formed escarpments to a hill called by us Table 
Mount, which, indeed, was pretty high, but did not, by any steep 
or bold cliffs, yield such a picturesque landscape border as is sel- 
dom wanting in the portions of Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the 
northern part of Novaya Zemlya which I had visited ; south No- 
vaya Zemlya has, at least at most places, bold picturesque shore- 
cliffs. If I except the rocky promontory of Yinretlen, where a cliff 
inhabited by ravens rises boldly out of the sea, and some cliffs 
situated farther in along the beach of Kolyutschin Bay, the shore 
in the immediate neighborhood of our wintering-station consisted 
everywhere only of a low beach formed of coarse sand. Upon this 
sand, which was always frozen, there ran parallel with the shore a 
broad bank or dune fifty to one hundred metres broad of fine sand 
not water-drenched in summer, and, accordingly, not bound to- 
gether by ice in winter. It is upon this dune that the Chukches 
erect their tents. Marks of them are therefore met with nearly 
everywhere, and the dune, accordingly, is everywhere bestrewed 
with broken implements or refuse from the chase. Indeed, it may 
be said, without exaggeration, that the whole northeastern coast of the 
Siberian Polar Sea is bordered with a belt of sweepings and refuse of 
various kinds. 

When, on the 16th July (1879), the reindeer Chukche Yettugin 
came on board, and, talking of collecting whalebones, in which we 



CHAP. XXXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



335 



had been engaged some days before, informed us that there was a 
mammoth bone at his tent, and that a mammoth's tusk stuck out 
at a place where the spring floods had cut into the bank of a river 
which flowed from Table Mount to Riraitinop, I did not hesitate 
to make an excursion to the place. Our absence from the vessel 
was reckoned at five or six days. It was my intention to go up 
the river in a skin-boat belonging to Notti to the place where the 
mammoth tusk was, and thence to proceed on foot to Yettugin's 
tent, Yettugin assured us that the river was sufficiently deep for 
flat-bottomed boats. But when we had travelled a little way into 
the country it appeared that the water had fallen considerably 
during the day Yettugin had passed on the vessel. So certain, 
however, was I that the ice-border would not yet, for a long time, 
be broken up, that I, immediately after my return from the excur- 
sion, which had been thus rendered unsuccessful, made arrange- 
ments for a new journey, in order, with other means of transport, 
to reach the goal. 

While we were thus employed the forenoon of the 18th passed. 
We sat down to dinner at the usual time without any suspicion 
that the time of our release was now at hand. During dinner it 
was suddenly observed that the vessel was moving slightly. Po- 
lander rushed on deck, saw that the ice was in motion, ordered 
the boiler-fire to be lighted, the engine having long ago been put 
in order in expectation of this moment, and in two hours, by 3.30 
p. m., on the 18th of July, 1879, the Vega, decked with flags, was 
under steam and sail again, on the way to her destination. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The Division of Chuckches — Their Population — Their Burials, Tents, Boats, etc. 

THE CHUCKCHES. 

It may be mentioned that Steller and Krascheninnikov only 
touch in passing on the true Chuckches, but, instead, give very in- 
structive and detailed accounts of the Koryaks, who are as nearly 
allied to the Chuckches as the Spaniards to the Portuguese, but yet 
differ considerably in their modes of life ; and also that a part of 
these authors' statements regarding the Chuckches do not at all 
refer to that tribe, but to the Eskimo. It appears, indeed, that 
recently, after the former's national enmity had ceased, mixed 
races have arisen among these tribes ; but it ought not to be for- 



336 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIII. 



gotten that they differ widely in origin, although the Chuckches, 
as coming at a later date to the coast of the Polar Sea, have 
adopted almost completely the hunting implements and house- 
hold furniture of the Eskimo, and the Eskimo again, in the dis- 
tricts where they come in contact with the Chuckches, have 
adopted various things from their language. 

Like the Lapps, and most of the European and Asiatic Polar 
races, the Chuckches fall into two divisions, speaking the same 
language and belonging to the same race, but differing consider- 
ably in their modes of life. One division consists of reindeer 
nomads, who with their often very numerous reindeer-herds wan- 
der about between Behring Straits and the Indigirka and the 
Penschina bays. They live by tending reindeer and by trades, 
and consider themselves the chief part of the Chuckche tribe. 
The other division of the race are the coast Chuckches, who do 
not own any reindeer, but live in fixed but easily-movable, and 
frequently-moved, tents along the coast between Chaun Bay and 
Behring Straits. But beyond East Cape there is found along the 
coast of Behring Sea another tribe nearly allied to the Eskimo. 
This is Wrangel's Onkilon, Lutke's Namollo. Now, however, 
Chuckches also have settled at several points on the line of coast, 
and a portion of the Eskimo have adopted the language of the 
superior Chuckche race. Thus the inhabitants of St. Lawrence 
bay spoke Chuckche, with a little mixture of foreign words, and 
differed in their mode of life and appearance only inconsiderably 
from the Chuckches, whom during the course of the winter we 
learned to know from nearly all parts of the Chuckche peninsula. 
The same was the case of the natives who came on board the 
Vega while we sailed past East Cape, and with the two families 
we visited in Konyan bay. But the natives in the northwest part 
of St. Lawrence Island talk an Eskimo dialect quite different 
from the Chuckche. There were, however, many Chuckche words 
incorporated with it. At Port Clarence, on the contrary, there 
lived pure Eskimo. Among them we found a Chuckche woman, 
who informed us that there were Chuckche villages also on the 
American side of Behring Strait, north of Prince of Wales Cape. 
They cannot, however, be very numerous or populous, as they 
are not mentioned in the account of the various English expedi- 
tions to those regions. 

Lieutenant Nordquist collected from the numerous foremen, 
who visited at the Vega, information as to the names of the en- 
campments which are to be found, at present, on the coast be- 
tween Chaun Bay and Behring Strait, and the number of tents at 



CHAP. XXXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



337 



each village. He thus ascertained that the number of the tents in 
the coast villages amounted to about four hundred. The number 
of inhabitants in each tent may be, according to our experience, 
averaged at five. The population on the line of coast in question 
may thus amount to about two thousand, at most to twenty-five 
hundred men, women, and children. The number of the reindeer 
Chuckches appears to be about the same. The whole population of 
Chuckch Land may thus now amount to four thousand or five 
thousand persons. The Cossack Popov reckoned, in 1711, that 
all the Chuckches, both reindeer-owning and those with fixed 
dwellings, numbered two thousand persons. Thus, during the 
last two centuries, if these estimates are correct, the Polar race 
has doubled in numbers. 

In regard to the Chuckche language there appear to be no dia- 
lects differing very much from each other. Whether foreign 
words, borrowed from other Asiatic languages, have been adopted 
in Chuckche, we have not been able to make out. It is certain 
that no Russian words are used. The language strikes me as ar- 
ticular and euphonious. It is nearly allied to the Koryak, but so 
different from other both East Asiatic and American tongues that 
philologists have not yet succeeded in clearing up the relationship 
of the Chuckches to other races. 

Like most other Polar tribes, the Chuckches now do not belong- 
to any unmixed race. This one is soon convinced of if he con- 
siders attentively the inhabitants of a large tent-village. Some 
are tall, with raven-black hair, brown complexion, high, aquiline 
nose, in short, with an exterior that reminds us of the description 
we read of the North American Indians. Others, again, by their 
dark hair, slight beard, sunk nose, or rather projecting cheek- 
bones, and oblique eyes, remind us distinct^ of the Mongolian 
race ; and, finally, we meet among them with fair faces, with feat- 
ures and complexion which lead us to suspect that they are de- 
scendants of runaways or prisoners of war or purely of Russian 
origin. The most common type is straight, coarse black hair of 
moderate length, the brow tapering upwards ; the nose finely 
formed, but with its root often flattened ; eyes by no means small ; 
well-developed black eyebrows ; projecting cheeks, often swollen 
by frost-bite ; light, slightly brown complexion, which in the 
young women is often nearly as red and white as in Europeans. 
The beard is always scanty. Nearly all are stout and well-grown. 
We saw no cripples among them. The young women often strike 
one as very pretty, if one can rid oneself of the unpleasant im- 
pression of the dirt, which is never washed away but by the drift - 

22 



338 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. NXXIII. 



ing snow of winter, and of the nauseous train-oil odor which in 
winter they carry with them from the close-tented chamber. The 
children nearly always make a pleasant impression by their 
healthy appearance and their friendly and becoming behavior. 

The Chuckches are a hardy race, but exceedingly indolent when 
want of food does not force them to exertions. The men during 
their hunting excursions pass whole days in a cold of 30° to 40° 
out upon the ice without protection, and without carrying with 
them food or fuel. In such cases they slake their thirst with 
snow, and assuage their hunger, if they have been successful in 
hunting, with the blood and flesh of the animals they have killed. 
Women, nearly naked, often during severe cold, leave for a while 
the inner tent, or tent-chamber, where the train-oil lamp main- 
tains a heat that is at times oppressive. A foreigner's visit in- 
duces the completely naked children to half creep out from under 
the curtain of reindeer-skin which separates the sleeping-chamber 
from the exterior tent, in which, as it is not heated, the tempera- 
ture is generally little higher than that of the air outside. In this 
temperature the mothers do not hesitate to show their naked chil- 
dren, one or two years of age, to visitors, for some moments. 

Diseases are, notwithstanding, uncommon, with the exception 
that in autumn, before the severe cold commences, nearly all suffer 
from a cough and cold. Very bad skin eruptions and sores also 
occur so frequently that a stay in the inner tent is thereby com- 
monly rendered disgusting to Europeans. Some of the sores, 
however, are merely frost-bites, which most Chuckches bring on 
themselves by the carelessness with which, during high winds, 
they expose the bare neck, breast and wrists to the lowest tem- 
perature. On the other hand, we never saw any one who had a 
frost-bite on the hands or feet, a circumstance which may be as- 
cribed to the serviceable nature of their shoes and gloves. From 
the beginning of October, 1878, to the middle of July, 1879, no 
death appears to have happened at any of the encampments 
near. During the same time the number of the inhabitants was 
increased by two or three births. 

It appears as if the Chuckches sometimes burn their dead, 
sometimes expose them on the tundra as food for beasts of prey, 
with weapons, sledges, and household articles. It is at least 
certain that the inhabitants of Pitlekaj exclusively bury their 
dead by laying them out on the tundra. In the spring of 1879, 
after the snow was melted, we had further opportunities of seeing 
a large number of burying-places, or, more correctly, of places 
where dead Chuckches had been laid out, They were marked 



CHAP. XXXIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



339 



by stones placed in a peculiar manner, and were measured and 
examined in detail by Dr. Stuxberg, who gives the following de- 
scription of them : — 

"The Chuckche graves on the heights south of Pitlekaj and 
Yinretlen, which were examined by me on the 4th and 7th of 
July, 1879, were nearly fifty in number. Every grave consisted 
of an oval form of large lying stones. At one end there was gen- 
erally a large stone raised on its edge, and from the opposite end 
there went out one or two pieces of wood lying on the ground. 
The area within the stone circle was sometimes overlaid with 
small stones, sometimes free and overgrown with grass. At all 
the graves, at a distance of four to seven paces from the stone 
standing on its edge, on the longitudinal axis of the grave, or a 
little to the side of it, there was another small circle of stones en- 
closing a heap of reindeer-horns, commonly containing also broken 
seals' skulls and other fragments of bones ; only in one grave were 
found pieces of human bones. The graves were evidently very 
old, for the bits of wood at the ends were generally much decayed, 
and almost wholly covered with earth, and the stones were com- 
pletely overgrown with lichens on the upper side. I estimated 
the age of these graves at about two hundred years. 

The Chuckches live, summer and winter, in tents of a peculiar 
construction, not used by any other race ; for in order to afford 
protection from the cold, the tent is double, the outer envelope 
enclosing an inner tent or sleeping-chamber. This has the form 
of a parallelopiped, about 3.5 metres long, 2.2 broad, and 1.8 
high. It is surrounded by thick warm reindeer- skins, and is fur- 
ther covered with a layer of grass. The floor consists of a walrus- 
skin stretched over a foundation of twigs and straw. At night 
the floor is covered with a carpet of reindeer-skins, which is taken 
away during the day. The rooms at the sides of the inner tent are 
also shut off by curtains, and serve as pantries. The inner tent is 
warmed by three train-oil lamps, which, together with the heat 
given off by the numerous human beings packed together in the 
tent, raise the temperature to such a height that the inhabitants, 
even during the severest winter cold, may be completely naked. 
The work of the women and the cooking is carried on in winter 
in this tent-chamber ; very often also the calls of nature are obeyed 
in it. All this conduces to make the atmosphere prevailing there 
unendurable (to Europeans). There are also, however, cleanlier 
families, in whose sleeping-chambers the air is not so disgusting. 

In summer they live, during the day, and cook and work in 
the outer tent. This consists of seal and walrus-skins sewed to- 



340 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIII. 



gether, which, however, are so old, hairless, and full of holes that 
they appear to have been used for several generations.* 

The entrance consists of a low door, which, when necessary, 
may be closed with a reindeer- skin. The floor of the outer tent is 
the bare ground. This is kept very clean, and the few household 
articles are hung up carefully, and in an orderly manner, along 
the wall on the inner and outer sides of the tent. Near the tent 
are some posts, as high as a man, driven into the ground, with 
cross-pieces, on which skin-boats, oars, javelins, etc., are laid, and 
from which fish and seal-nets are suspended. 

Their tents were always situated on the seashore, generally on 
the small neck of land that separates the strand lagoons from the 
sea. They are erected and taken down in a few hours. Some- 
times they appear to own the wooden frame of a tent at several 
places, and, in such cases, at removal there are taken along only 
their tent-covering, the dogs, and the most necessary skin and 
household articles. The others are left without inclosure, lock or 
watch at the former dwelling-place, and one is certain to find all 
untouched on his return. t 

The boats are made of walrus-skins sewed together and stretched 
over a light framework of wood and pieces of bone. The different 
parts of the framework are bound together with thongs of skin or 
strings of whalebone. In form and size the Chuckche large boat, 
atkuat, called by the Russians baydar corresponds completely with 
the Greenlander's umiak, or woman's boat. It is so light that four 
men can take it upon their shoulders, and yet so roomy that thirty 
men can be conveyed in it. One seldom sees anatkuat, or boats 
intended for only one man ; they are much worse-built and uglier 
than the Greenlander's kayak. The large boats are rowed with 
broad-bladed oars, of which every man or woman manages only 
one. By means of these oars a sufficient number of rowers can 
for a little while raise the speed of the boat to ten kilometers per 
hour. Like the Greenlanders, however, they often cease rowing 
in order to rest, laugh, and chatter, then row furiously for some 
minutes, rest themselves again, row rapidly, and so on. When 
the sea is covered with thin, newly-formed ice, they put two men 
in the front of the boat with one leg over, in order to trample the 
ice in pieces. During the winter the boats are laid up, and, in- 
stead, the dog-sledges are put in order."]; 

* As wood for building is not to be found on the Chuckche coast, they make use 
principally of whalebones in building their tents. 

| Honesty among the tribe appears to have been the universal characteristic 
of the early Indians of America from Chuckche to Chili. When the Peruvians 
learned that the Spaniards locked their doors they contemned them. 

% " Voyage of the Vega," by Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiold. 



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CHAP. XXXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



341 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

St. Lawrence Bay — Nunamo — The Uses of the Whale-bones — Flowers — Port 
Clarence — The Natives — Eskimo — Their Implements — Burials — Nephite — 
Ocean Currents — The Behring Strait Channel — Konyan Bay — Geological 
Features — St. Lawrence Island Eskimo — The Discovery of Kamchatka — 
Expeditions to Kamchatka — Peter the Great — The First Voyage of Behring. 

After we had passed the easternmost promontory of Asia the 
course was shaped first to St. Lawrence Bay, a not inconsiderable 
fiord, which indents the Chukche peninsula a little south of the 
smallest part of Behring Strait [21]. It was my intention to 
anchor at this fiord to give the naturalists of the Vega expedition 
an opportunity of making acquaintance with the natural condi- 
tions of a part of the Chukch Land, which is more favored by 
nature than the bare stretch of coast completely open to the winds 
of the Polar Sea, which we hitherto had visited. I would wil- 
lingly have stayed first for some hours at Diomede Island, the mar- 
ket-place famed among the Polar tribes, situated in the northwest part 
of the Strait, nearly half way between Asia and America, and probably 
before the time of Columbus a station for traffic between the Old and the 
New World. But such a delay would have been attended with 
too great a difficulty and loss of time in consequence of the dense 
fogs which prevail here. Even the high mountains on the Asi- 
atic shore were still wrapped in a thick mist, from which only 
single mountain summits now and then appeared. The ice was 
so broken up that the Vega could steam forward at full speed to 
the neighborhood of St. Lawrence Bay. 

In the mouth of the fiord itself impenetrable ice was met with, 
completely blocking the splendid haven of St. Lawrence Bay. 
The Vega, therefore, was compelled to anchor in the open road, 
off the village Nunamo. Our stay there was confined to a few 
hours. 

During the course of the winter Lieut. Nordquist endeavored to 
collect from the Chukches travelling past as complete information 
as possible regarding the Chukche villages or encampments which 
are found along the coast between Chaun Bay and Behring Strait. 
His informants always finished their list with the village Ertryn, 
situated west of Cape Deschnev, explaining that further south and 
east there lived another tribe, with whom, indeed, they were not in 
open enmity, but who were not to be fully depended upon, and 
to whose villages they, therefore, dared not to accompany us. 



342 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIV. 



While we steamed, for ward cautiously in a dense fog in the neigh- 
borhood of Cape Deschnev, twenty or thirty natives came, rowing 
in a large skin-boat, to the vessel. We received them with pleas- 
ure. But when they climbed over the side we discovered that they 
were pure Chukches, some of them old acquaintances, who, during 
the winter, had been guests on board the Vega. " Ankali" said they, 
with' evident contempt, are first met with further beyond St. Law- 
rence Bay. When we anchored next day at the mouth of this bay, 
we were, as usual, immediately visited by a large number of natives, 
and ourselves visited their tents on land. They still talked Chuk- 
che with a limited mixture of foreign words, lived in tents of a con- 
struction somewhat different from the Chukches, and appeared to 
have a somewhat different cast of countenance. They themselves 
would not allow that there was any national difference between 
them and the old warrior and conquering tribe on the north coast, 
but stated that the race about which we inquired was settled im- 
mediately to the south. Some days after we anchored in Konyan 
Bay. We found there only pure reindeer-owning Chukches ; there 
was no coast population living by hunting and fishing. On the 
other hand, the inhabitants near our anchorage off St. Lawrence 
Island consisted of Eskimo and Namollo. It thus appears as 
if a great part of the Eskimo who inhabited the Asiatic side of 
Behring Strait had, during recent times, lost their own nation- 
ality and become fused with the Chukches ; for it is certain that 
no violent expulsion has recently taken place here. It ought, be- 
sides, to be remarked that the name Onkilon, which Wrangel heard 
given to the old coast population driven out by the Chukches, is 
evidently nearly allied to the word Ankali, with which the rein- 
deer Chukches at present distinguish the coast Chukch ; also, that 
in the oldest Russian accounts of Schestakov's and Paulutski's 
campaigns in these regions, there is never any mention of two 
different tribes living here. It therefore appears to me to be, on 
the whole, more probable that the Eskimo here emigrated from 
America to Asia, than that, as some authors have supposed, this 
tribe has entered America from the east by Behring Strait or 
Wrangel Land. 

The tent- village Nunamo lies pretty high up on a cape between 
the sea and a river which debouches immediately to the northwest 
of the village. At a short distance from the coast the land was 
occupied by a very high chain of mountains, which was split up 
into a number of summits, and whose sides were formed of im- 
mense stone mounds distributed in terraces. The village con- 
sisted of ten tents built without order on the first high strand-bank. 



CHAP. XXXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



343 



The tents differed somewhat from the common Chukche tents. In 
the absence of driftwood, whale- and seal-bones, drenched in 
train-oil, are used as fuel in cooking in the open air during sum- 
mer. A large curved whale-rib was placed over the fireplace to 
serve as a pot-holder; the vertebrae of the whale were used as 
mortars; hollowed whale-bones were used as lamps; slices of 
whale-bone or pieces of the under jaw and the straighter ribs were 
used for shoeing the sledges, for spades and ice-mattocks, the 
different parts of the implement being bound together with whale- 
bone fibres, etc. 

When we left Pitlekaj vegetation there was still far from having 
reached its full development, but at Nunamo the strand-bank 
was gay with an exceedingly rich magnificence of color. On an 
area of a few acres Dr. Kjellman collected more than a hun- 
dred species of flowering plants, among which was a considerable 
number that he had not before seen on the Chukch peninsula. 

During an excursion to the top of one of the neighboring moun- 
tains Dr. Stuxberg found the corpse of a native laid out on a stone- 
setting of a form common to the Chukches. Alongside the dead 
man lay a broken percussion-gun, spear, arrows, tinder-box, pipe 
and various other articles. The pipe was one of the clay pipes 
that I caused to be distributed to the natives. It had been placed 
there long after the proper burial. 

On the afternoon of the 21st of July, 1879, I ordered the anchor 
to be weighed that the Vega might steam across to the American 
side of Behring Strait. As in all the polar seas of the northern 
hemisphere, so also here the western side of the strait was ice- 
bestrewed ; the eastern, on the other hand, clear of ice. The 
passage was a rapid one, so that by the afternoon of the 21st of 
July we were able to anchor in Port Clarence, an excellent haven 
south of the westernmost promontory of America — Cape Prince 
of Wales. 

Towards the sea Port Clarence is protected by a long, low, sandy 
reef, between the north end of which and the land there is a con- 
venient and deep entrance. There a considerable river falls into 
the interior of the harbor, the mouth of which widens into a lake, 
which is separated from the outer harbor by a sandy neck of land. 
This lake also forms a good and spacious harbor, but its entrance 
is too shallow for vessels of any considerable draught. 

The river itself is deep, and, about eighteen kilometres from its 
mouth, flows through another lake, from the eastern fehore of which 
rugged and shattered mountains rise to a height which I estimated 
at eight hundred to one thousand metres, but their height may be 



344 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIY. 



twice as great, for in making such estimates one is liable to fall 
into error. 

Immediately after the anchor fell we were visited by several very 
large skin-boats and a large number of kayaks; the latter were 
larger than the Greenlanders\ being commonly intended for two 
persons, who sit hack to back in the middle of the craft. After the 
natives came on board a lively traffic commenced. I examined 
carefully the skin bags which the natives had with them. In doing 
so I picked out one thing after another while they did not object 
to me making an inventory. One of them, however, showed great- 
unwillingness to allow me to get to the bottom of the sack : but 
this made me more curious to ascertain what was concealed there. 
I was urgent, and went through the bag half by violence until at 
last, in the bottom. I got a solution of the riddle — a loaded revolver. 
Several of the natives had also breech-loaders. The oldest age, 
with stone implements, and the most recent period, with breech- 
loaders, thus here reached hands to one another. 

Many natives were evidently emigrating to more northerly 
hunting-grounds and fishing-places. Others had already pitched 
their summer tents on the banks of the inner harbor or of the 
river before mentioned. On the other hand, there was found in 
the region only a small number of winter dwellings abandoned 
during the warm season of the year. The population consisted 
of Eskimo. They did not understand a word of Chukche. Among 
them, however, we found a Chukche woman, who stated that true 
Chukches were found also on the American side north of Behring 
Strait. Two of the men spoke a little English, one had been even to 
San Francisco, another to Honolulu. Many of their household ar- 
ticles reminded us of contact with American whalers; and justice 
demands the recognition of the fact that, in opposition to what we 
commonly see stated, contact with men of civilized race appears 
to have been to the advantage and improvement of the savage in 
an economical and moral point of view. The arrangement of the 
hair resembled that of the Chukches. The women were tattooed 
with some lines on the chin. Many of the men wore small mus- 
tachios, some even a scanty beard, while others had attempted the 
American goatee. Most of them, but not all. had two holes cut in 
the lip below the corners of the mouth. In these holes were worn 
large pieces of bone, glass, or stone.* But these ornaments were 
often removed, and then the edges of the large holes closed so 
much that the' face was not much disfigured. Many had, in addi- 

* I have seen Choctaws "with tin in the form of a semicircle or crescent nearly 
two inches in diameter suspended from the cartilage of the nose. 



CHAP. XXXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



345 



tion, a similar hole forward in the lip. It struck me, however, 
that this strange custom was about to disappear completely, or, at 
least, to be Europeanized by the exchange of holes in the mouth for 
holes in the ears. An almost full-grown young woman had a 
large blue glass bead hanging from the nose, in whose partition a 
hole had been made for its suspension. All the women had long 
strings of beads in their ears. They wore bracelets of iron or cop- 
per, resembling those of the Chukches. The color of the skin was 
not very dark, with perceptible redness of the cheeks; the hair 
black and tallow-like ; the eyes small, brown, slightly oblique ; 
the face flat; the nose small and depressed at the root. Most of 
the natives were of average height, appeared to be healthy and in 
good condition, and were marked neither by striking thinness nor 
corpulence. The feet and hands were small. 

A certain elegance and order prevailed in their small tents, the 
floor of which was covered with mats of plaited plants. In many 
places vessels formed of cocoanut-shells were to be seen, brought 
thither, like some of the mats, by whalers from the South Sea 
Islands. For the most part their household and hunting imple- 
ments were of American origin, but they still preserve in the lum- 
ber depositories of the tent bows and arrows, bird-darts, bone 
boat-hooks, and various stone implements. The fishing imple- 
ments, especially, were made with extraordinary skill of colored 
sorts of bone or stone, glass beads, and red pieces of the feet of cer- 
tain swimming birds, etc. The different materials were bound 
together by twine made of whalebone in such a manner that they 
resembled large beetles, being intended for use in the same way 
as salmon-flies. 

Fire was got partly with steel, flint, and tinder, partly by means 
of the fire-drill. The bow of the fire-drill was often of ivory, richly 
ornamented with hunting figures of different kinds. Their tools 
were more elegant, better carved, and more richly colored with 
graphite and red ochre than those of the Chukches. The people 
were better off, and owned a larger number of skin-boats, both 
kayaks and umiaks. All the older accounts, however, agree in rep- 
resenting that, in former times, the Chukches were recognized as a 
great power by the other savage tribes in these regions, but all 
recent observations indicate that that time is now past. A certain 
respect for them, however, appears still to prevail among their 
neighbors. 

The natives, after the first mistrust had disappeared, were 
friendly and accommodating, honorable in their dealings, though 
given to begging and to much haggling in making a bargain. 



346 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIV. 



There appeared to be no chief among them; complete equality 
prevailed, and the position of the women did not appear to be 
inferior to that of the men. The children were what we would 
call well brought up, though they got no bringing up at all. All 
AYere heathens. The liking for spirits appeared to be less strong 
than among the Chukches. 

During our stay among the Chukches my supply of articles for 
barter was very limited, for uncertainty prevailed to the hour of 
our departure as to the time when we should get free, and I was 
therefore compelled to be sparing of the stores. Here I was a 
rich man, many thanks to the large surplus that was over from 
our abundant winter equipment. I turned my riches to account 
by making visits, like a peddler, in the tent-villages, with sacks 
full of felt-hats, thick clothes, stockings, ammunition, etc., for 
which I obtained a beautiful and choice collection of ethnographi- 
cal articles. Among these may be mentioned beautiful bone 
etchings and carvings, and several arrow-points, and other tools 
of a species of nephrite, which is so puzzlingly like the well-known 
nephrite from High Asia that I am disposed to believe that it 
actually came originally from that locality. In such a case the 
occurrence of nephrite at Behring Strait is important, because it 
cannot be explained in any other way than either by supposing 
that the tribes living here have carried the mineral with them 
from their original home in High Asia, or that during the Stone 
Age of High Asia a like extended commercial intercommunica- 
tion took place between the wild races as now exists, or at least 
some decades ago existed, along the north parts of Asia and 
America.* 

On the north side of the harbor we found two Eskimo graves. 

* "Nephrite is a light-green, sometimes grass-green, very hard and compact 
species of amphibolite, which occurs in High Asia, Mexico and New Zealand. 
In all these places it has been employed for stone implements, vases, pipes, etc. 
The Chinese put an immensely high value upon it. Nephrite was also, perhaps, 
the first of all stones to be used ornamentally, for we find axes and chisels 
of this material among the people of the Stone Age, both in Europe (where no 
locality is known where unworked nephrite is found), and in Asia, America, 
and New Zealand. In Asia implements of nephrite are found both on the 
Chukche Peninsula and in all graves from the Stone Age, in the southern part 
of the country. They have been discovered at Telma, sixty versts from Irk- 
utsk. In scientific mineralogy nephrite is first mentioned under the name of 
Kascholong (i.e., a species of stone from the river Kasch). It has been brought 
to Sweden under this name by Renat, a prisoner of war from Charles XII. 's 
army, from High Asia. Kascholong has erroneously been considered a species 
of quartz." 



CHAP. XXXIV.] 



OF AMERICA, 



347 



The corpses had been laid in the ground fully clothed, without 
the protection of any coffin, but surrounded by a close fence, 
consisting of a number of tent-poles driven crosswise into the 
ground. Alongside of the corpses lay a kayak with oars, a loaded 
double-barrelled gun, with locks at half-cock and caps on, various 
other weapons, clothes, tinder-box, snow-shoes, drinking vessels, 
two masks carved in wood and smeared with blood, and strangely 
shaped animal figures. Such were seen also in the tents. Bags 
of seal-skins, intended to be inflated and fastened to harpoon- as 
floats, were sometimes ornamented with small faces carved in 
wood. In one of two amulets of the same kind one eye is repre- 
sented by a piece of blue enamel stuck in, and the other by a 
piece of iron pyrites fixed in the same way. Behind two tents 
were found erected on posts, a metre and a half high, roughly 
formed wooden images of birds with expanded wings, painted red. 
I endeavored, unsuccessfully, to purchase these tent-idols for a 
large new felt-hat — an article for which I could obtain almost 
anything. 

As the west coast of Europe is washed by the Gulf Stream, there 
also runs along the Pacific coast of America a warm current, which 
gives the land a much milder climate than that which prevails on 
the neighboring Asiatic side, whereas on the east coast of Green- 
land there runs a cold northerly current. The limit of trees, there- 
fore, in northwestern America goes a great way north of Behring 
Strait, while on the Chukche Peninsula wood appears to be 
wholly wanting. Even at Port Lawrence the coast is devoid of 
trees, but some kilometres into the country aider bushes two feet 
high are met with, and behind the coast hills actual forests proba- 
bly occur. Vegetation is, besides, already luxuriant at the coast, 
and far away here on the coast of the New World many species 
are to be found nearly allied to Scandinavian plants. 

On the 26th of July, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we 
weighed anchor and steamed back to the shore of the Old World. 
Lieutenant Bove constructed a diagram, from which it may be 
seen how shallow is the sound, which in the northernmost part of 
the Pacific separates the Old World from the New. An elevation 
of the land less than that which has taken place since the glacial 
period at the well-known Chapel Hill at Uddevalla would evidently 
be sufficient to unite the two worlds, and a corresponding depres- 
sion would have been enough to separate them, if, as is probable, 
they were at one time continuous. The diagram shows, besides, 
that the deepest channel is quite close to the coast of the Chukche 
Peninsula, and that the channel contains a mass of cold water 



348 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIV. 



which is separated by a ridge from the warmer water on the 
American side. 

The Vega anchored on the forenoon of the 28th of July, in the 
mouth of the most northerly of the fiords, Konyan Bay. This 
portion of the Chukche Peninsula had been visited before us by 
Captain (afterwards Admiral) Lutke. Captain Moor, of the Frank- 
lin Expedition, wintered here in 1848 and 1849. The region ap- 
pears to have been then inhabited by a rather dense population. 
Now there lived at the bay where we had anchored only three 
reindeer Chukche families, and the neighboring islands must at 
the time have been uninhabited, or perhaps the arrival of the 
Vega may not have been observed, for no natives came on board. 

The shore at the southeast part of Konyan Bay, in which the 
Vega now lay at anchor for a couple of days, consists of rather a 
desolate bog, in which a large number of cranes were breeding. 
Further into the country several mountain summits rose to the 
height of nearly six hundred metres. On the north side of the 
bay, to wdiich excursions were made with the steam launch, grassy 
slopes were met with, with pretty high bushy thickets, and a great 
variety of flowers. 

We also visited the dwellings of the reindeer Chukche families. 
They resemble the Chukche tents we had seen before, and the 
mode of life of the inhabitants differed but little from that of the 
coast Chukches, with whom we passed the winter. They were even 
clothed in the same way, excepting that the men wore a num- 
ber of small bells in the belt. The number of reindeer which 
these families owned was only about four hundred, considerably 
fewer than is required to feed three Lapp families. 

The neighborhood of Konyan Bay consists of crystalline rocks, 
granite poor in mica, and mica- schist lowermost, and then gray 
non-fossiliferous carbonate of lime, and last of all magnesian 
schists, porphyry, and quartzites. Here, however, we are already 
in the neighborhood of the volcanic hearths of Kamchatka, which, 
for instance, is shown by the hot springs not far from the coast. 
In the middle of the severe cold of February its waters had a 
temperature + 69° C. Hot steam and snow combined had thrown 
over the spring a lofty vault of dazzling whiteness formed of 
masses of snow converted into ice and covered with ice-crystals. 

The interior of Konyan Bay was, during our stay there, still 
covered with an unbroken sheet of ice, which broke up in the af- 
ternoon of the 30th of July, when steam was got up, the anchor 
weighed, and the vessel removed to the open part of the fiord. The 
fear that a too lengthened delay might lead to a heavy expendi- 



CHAP. XXXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



349 



ture of money, I preferred to sail on immediately, rather than 
enter a safer harbor in the neighborhood. The course was now 
shaped for the northwest point of St. Lawrence Island, and the 
Vega was anchored on the 31st of July in an open bay on the 
northwest side of St. Lawrence Island. This island is the largest 
between the Aleutian Islands and Behring Strait. It lies nearer 
Asia than America, but is considered as belonging to the latter, 
for which reason it was handed over, along with Alaska Ter- 
ritory, by Russia to the United States. The island is inhabited 
by a few Eskimo families, who have commercial relations with 
their Chukche neighbors on the Russian side, and therefore have 
adopted some words from their language. On the St. Lawrence 
Island their dress is much ornamented, chiefly with tufts of 
feathers of the sea-fowls that breed in innumerable flocks on the 
island. At the time of our visit all the natives went bareheaded. 
The women wore their hair plaited and adorned with beads, and 
were much tattooed. Like the children, they mostly went bare- 
footed and bare-legged. 

The winter dwellings were now abandoned. They appear to 
consist of holes in the ground, which were covered above, with the 
exception of a square opening, with driftwood and turf. During 
the winter a seal-skin tent was probably stretched over the open- 
ing. At several tents were found large under-jaws of whales fixed 
in the ground. Masses of whale-bones lay thrown up along the 
shore. In the neighborhood of the tents graves were found. The 
corpses had been placed, unburned, in some cleft among the 
rocks. 

Northeast of the anchorage the shore was formed of low hills 
rising with a steep slope from the sea. Here and there ruin-like 
cliffs projected from the hills. The rock here consisted of the 
same sort of granite which formed the lowermost stratum of Kon- 
yan Bay. It was principally at the foot of these slopes that the 
natives erected their dwellings. Southwest of the anchorage com- 
menced a very extensive plain, which, towards the interior of the 
island, was marshy, but along the coast formed a firin^ even, grassy 
meadow exceedingly rich in flowers. The natives had a few dogs 
but no reindeer, which, however, might find food on the island in 
thousands. No kayaks were in use, but large baydars of the 
same construction as those of the Chukches. 

St. Lawrence Island was discovered during Behring's first voy- 
ages, which extended between July, 1725, to July, 1729, though 
to Deschnev, who sailed through the Straits eighty years before, 
should properly belong the first discovery. The first who came 



350 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIV. 



in contact with the natives at St. Lawrence Island was Otto von 
Kotzebue, on the 27th of June, 1816, and 20th of July, 1817. The 
inhabitants had not before seen any Europeans, and they received 
the foreigners with great kindness. 

As Kotzebue, two days after, sailed past the north point of the 
island, he met three baydars. In one of them a man stood up, 
held up a little dog and pierced it through with his knife, as Kot- 
zebue believed, as a sacrifice to the foreigners.* 

Since 1817 naval exploring expeditions have landed on St. Law- 
rence Island, but always only a few hours. It is very dangerous 
to stay long here with a vessel. Captain Polander was, on this 
account, anxious to leave the place as soon as possible. On the 
2d of August, 1829, we accordingly resumed our voyage. 

Some account remains to be given of the discovery of Kam- 
chatka. Volodomir Atlassov is considered its proper discoverer. 
While he was commander at Anadrysk, he sent out, in 1696, the 
Cossack, Lucas Semenov Sin Morosko, with sixteen men to bring 
the tribes living in the north under tribute. The commission was 
executed, and on his return Morosko stated that he was not only 
among the Koryaks, but that he also penetrated to the neighbor- 
hood of the river Kamchatka, and that he took a Kamchadel 
" ostrog " (fort) and found in it some manuscripts in an unknown 
language, which, according to information afterward received, had 
belonged to some Japanese who had stranded on the coast of 
Kamchatka. t It was the first hint the conquerors of Siberia ob- 
tained of being in the neighborhood of Japan. 

The year after, Atlassov followed the way which Morosko had 
opened up, and penetrated to the river Kamchatka, where, as a sign 
that he had taken possession of the land, he erected a cross with 
an inscription which when translated runs thus : " In the year 7205 
(i. e, 1697), on the 13th of July, this cross was erected by the pia- 
tidesatnik (i. <?., commander of fifty men) Volodomir Atlassov and 
his followers, fifty-five men." Atlassov then built on the Kam- 
chatka River a simovie, which was afterward fortified and named 
Verchni Kamchatskoj Ostrog. Hence the Russians extended their 
power over the land. 

In 1700 Atlassov travelled to Moscow, carrying with him a Japa- 
nese who had been taken prisoner after being shipwrecked on the 

* The Chippewas, on a voyage, sacrifice a dog to propitiate the god of storms, 
by tying and casting it into the water. See Henry's "Narrative." 

f In one account, 1698-1699 are given as the years of Morosko's and Atlas- 
sov' s expedition. Several authorities are quoted in "The Voyage of the 
Vega" in verification of the above facts. 



CHAP. XXXIV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



351 



coast of Kamchatka, and the collected tribute which consisted of 
the skins of thirty-two hundred sables, ten sea-otters, seven, beavers, 
four otters, ten grey-foxes, and one hundred and ninety-one red 
foxes. He was received graciously, and sent back as commander 
of the Cossacks in Yakutsk, with orders to complete the conquest 
of Kamchatka. An interruption, however, happened, for some time 
in the path of Atlassov, as a warrior and discoverer, in consequence 
of his having, during his return journey to Yakutsk, plundered a 
Russian vessel loaded with Chinese goods. He was not set free 
till 1706, and then recovered his command in Kamchatka. Fi- 
nally in 1711, Atlassov and several other officers were murdered 
by their own countrymen. Their murderers undertook to subdue 
the unconquered parts of Kamchatka and the two northernmost 
of the Kurile Islands. Further information about the countries 
lying farther south was obtained from some Japanese who were 
shipwrecked, in 1710, on Kamchatka. 

At first, in order to get to Kamchatka, the difficult detour by 
Anadyrsk was taken. But in the year 1711 the commander at 
Okotsk was ordered to proceed by sea from Okotsk to Kamchatka, 
but this voyage could not come off, because at that time there 
were at Okotsk neither sea-going boats, seamen, nor even men ac- 
customed to the use of the compass. Some years after, Ivan Soro- 
kaumov with twelve Cossacks was sent to Okotsk to make arrange- 
ments for this voyage, but the same difficulties still existed, and 
after Sorokaumov had created great confusion he was imprisoned 
and sent back. Peter the Great now commanded that men ac- 
quainted with navigation should be sought for among the Swedish pris- 
oners of war and sent to Okotsk ; that they should build a boat there, 
and, provided with a compass, go by sea cdong with some Cossacks to 
Kamchatka and return. Thus navigation began on the Sea of 
Okotsk. Among the Swedes who opened it is mentioned Henry 
Busch. According to Muller, who met with him at Yakutsk as 
late as 1736, he was born at Hoorn, in Holland. He gave Muller 
the following account of his first voyage across the Sea of Okotsk. 

After arriving at Okotsk they built a vessel resembling the 
lodjas. This vessel was strong; its length was eight and a half 
fathoms, its breadth three fathoms, the freeboard when the vessel 
was loaded, three and a half feet. The first voyage took place in 
June, 1716. They wintered at the river Kompakova. During the 
winter the sea cast up a whale which had in its carcass a harpoon 
of European manufacture and with Latin letters. The vessel left 
the winter-haven in the middle of May (new style), 1717, and was 
for five and a half weeks beset by ice-fields. In the end of July 



352 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIV. 



they were again back at Okotsk. From this time there has been 
regular communication between this town and Kamchatka. 

Peter the Great, during the last years of his life, arranged one 
of the greatest geographical expeditions which the history of the 
world can show. It was not until after his death, however, that it 
was carried out, and then it went on for a series of years on so 
large a scale that whole tribes are said to have been impoverished 
through the severe exactions of transport that were, on this ac- 
count, imposed on the inhabitants of the Siberian deserts. Its 
many different divisions are now comprehended under the name 
The Great Northern Expedition. Through the writings of Behring, 
Muller, Gmelin, Steller, Krascheninnikov and others, this expedi- 
tion has acquired an important place for all time in the history not 
only of geography, but also of ethnography, zoology and botany ; 
and even now the inquirer, when the natural conditions of North 
Asia are in question, must turn to these works. 

The Great Northern Expedition was ushered in by the first ex- 
pedition to Kamchatka. The commander of this expedition was 
the Dane, Vitus Behring, who was accompanied by Lieutenant 
Morton Spangberg, also a Dane by birth, and Alexei Chirikov. 

They left St. Petersburg in February, 1725, and took the land 
route across Siberia, carrying with them the necessary materials 
with which in Kamchatka to build and equip the vessel with which 
they should make the voyage of exploration. More than three 
years were required for the voyage, or, rather, for this geographico- 
scientific campaign. It was not until the 16th (4th) of April that 
a beginning could be made at Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog of 
building the vessel, which was launched on the 21st (10th) of 
July, and on the 31st (20th) of the same month Behring began his 
voyage. On the 21st (10th) of August St. Lawrence Island was 
discovered, and on the 26th (15th) of the same month the explor- 
ers sailed past the northeastern promontory of Asia, in 67° 18', 
and observed that the coast trends to the west from that point. 
Behring, on this account, considered that he had fulfilled his com- 
mission to ascertain whether Asia and America were separated, 
and he now determined to return. It was during this voyage that 
the sound which has since obtained the name of Behring Strait 
is considered to have been discovered; but it is now known that this 
discovery properly belongs to the gallant hunter Deschnev, who 
sailed through these straits eighty years before. Several state- 
ments by Kamchadales regarding a great country towards the 
east on the other side of the sea induced Behring, the following 
year, to sail away in order to ascertain whether this was the case. 



CHAP. XXXV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



353 



Inconsequence of unfavorable weather he did not reach the coasl of 
America, but returned, after which he sailed to Okotsk, where he ar- 
rived on August 3d (July 23d), 1729, whence he went to St. Peters- 
burg, which he reached after a journey of six months and nine days. 

In maps published during Behring's absence Kamchatka had 
been delineated with so long an extension towards the south that 
this peninsula was connected with Yezo, the northernmost of the 
large Japanese Islands. The distance between Kamchatka and 
Japan, rich in wares, would thus have been quite inconsiderable. 

This nearness was believed to be further confirmed by another 
Japanese ship manned by seventeen men and laden with silk, rice 
and paper, having stranded, in July, 1729, on Kamchatka south of 
Avatscha Bay. In this neighborhood there was, along with a num- 
ber of natives, a small party of Cossacks, under the command of 
Schtinnikov. He at first accepted several presents of the ship- 
wrecked men, but afterwards withdrew from the place where the 
wreck took place. When the Japanese, on this account, rowed on 
along the coast, Schtinnikov gave orders to follow them in a 
baydar and kill them all but two. The cruel deed was carried 
into execution, on which the malefactors took possession of the 
goods and broke in pieces the boats, in order to obtain the iron 
with which the boards were fastened together. The two Japanese 
who were saved were carried to Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog, and 
sent to St. Petersburg, where they learned the Russian language, 
while some Russians learned the Japanese. The Japanese, who 
were both from Smetsua, died between 1730 and 1739. Their 
vessel had been bound for Osaka, but having been carried out of 
its course by a storm, had drifted about at sea for six months, 
stranding at length, with so unfortunate a result for the greater 
part of the crew. Schtinnikov was hung for his crime.* 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Voyage of Marco Polo, 1291 — Jewish and Egyptian Types among Indians 
in America — The Voyages of the Norsemen (860-1000 A.n. ) — Their Koute 
to America — Their Relics on Baffin's Bay — The Voyage of Leif Eireksen — 
The Viking Vessel of Gokstad, Norway — The Voyage of Captain Magnus 
Andersen on the Viking, 1893 a.d. 

It has been shown that the northern coast of Asia is inhabited 
for twenty degrees of longitude west of Behring Strait — from Chaun 

* " Voyage of the Vega," by Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiold. 
23 



354 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXV. 



Bay to Behring Strait ; that the eastern shore of the strait is also 
inhabited, and the coast on that side for several degrees north of 
the strait; that intercourse exists, and has existed, between the 
inhabitants of the eastern and western shores of the strait; that 
the northern coast of Asia has been inhabited for hundreds of 
years ; in fact, it is not known how long it has been inhabited 
beyond the existence of the present evidences of its habitation 
centuries ago. From these facts there is reason to believe that 
intercourse has existed between the inhabitants of the north- 
western part of North America and the northeastern part of Asia 
ever since these parts have been inhabited. And there are reasons 
to believe that China and Japan in remote ages had intercourse 
with America. 

Kublai-khan, the Grand Khan of all the Tartars, and fifth in 
succession from Ghengis-khan, reigned in the city of Kambalu, 
the capital of Cathay, or China, when Marco Polo arrived there 
about the year 1273 or 1274. It happened, while Polo was there in 
the service of the Grand Khan, that the wife of Argun, sovereign 
of India, died, about 1287. Argun deputed three of his nobles, 
attended by a numerous retinue, as his ambassadors to the Grand 
Khan, with request that he might receive at his hand a maiden to 
wife from among the relatives of his deceased queen. Under the 
directions of the Grand Khan, choice was made of a damsel aged 
seventeen years and extremely handsome and accomplished. 

The ambassadors having left with Kagatin — such was the name 
of the bride— and travelled by land for eight months, found their 
further progress obstructed, and the roads closed against them by 
fresh wars that had broken out among the Tartar princes. The 
ambassadors were therefore constrained to return to the court of 
the Grand Khan. 

About the time of their reappearance at Kambalu Marco Polo 
happened to arrive from a voyage he had made with a few vessels 
under his orders to some port of the East Indies — probably the 
island of Sumatra and other islands of the Indian Archipelago. 
The three ambassadors, having learned of this voyage of Polo, and 
being extremely anxious to return to their own country, from which 
they had now been absent three years, obtained from the Grand 
Kahn permission that Marco, as being well skilled in the practice 
of navigation, might convey them and the bride by sea to the 
kingdom of Argun. Preparations were accordingly made for the 
equipment of fourteen ships, each having four masts and capable 
of being navigated with nine sails. Among these vessels there 
were at least four or five that had crews of two hundred and fifty 



CHAP. XXXV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



855 



or two hundred and sixty men. On them were embarked the am- 
bassadors, having the queen under their protection, together with 
Nicolo, Maffeo, and Marco Polo. 

After a navigation of about three months they arrived at an 
island which lay in a southerly direction named Java. Taking 
their departure thence, they employed eighteen months in the In- 
dian seas, having had to wait for the change of the monsoon, before 
they were enabled to reach the place of their destination in the 
territory of King Argun. 

The place where the expedition ultimately arrived is not directly 
mentioned in any part of Marco Polo's travels, but there are strong 
grounds for inferring it to have been the celebrated port of Ormus. 

The fleet had left the Peho, or river of Peking, about the begin- 
ning of 1291. Between the day of their sailing and that of their 
arrival at Ormus they lost by deaths of the crews of the vessels, 
and others who had embarked, about six hundred persons ; and 
of the three ambassadors only one survived the voyage, whilst of 
all the ladies and female attendants only one died. This mortality 
was not greater than might be expected in vessels crowded with 
men not accustomed to voyages of such duration, and who had 
passed several months at an anchorage in the Strait of Malacca ; 
and, although it should have amounted to one-third of their whole 
number, the proportions would not have exceeded what was suf- 
fered by Lord Anson and other navigators of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. 

It is impossible, says Barrow, not to consider the notices given 
by this early traveller (Marco Polo) as " curious, interesting, and 
valuable, and, as far as they regard the empire of China, they 
bear internal evidence of their being generally correct." 

This voyage of about fifty-five hundred miles was made two 
hundred years before Columbus discovered the New World. Had 
Marco Polo on this occasion directed his course northward to the 
Aleutian Is'lands and then westwardly, he would have reached 
North America in a much shorter distance and with much less 
delay and difficulty than he reached the Persian Gulf ; and, con- 
sidering this, and the value placed upon furs and peltries, it is 
probable that Japan and China, with their immense resources, had 
commercial relations with the New World long before it was dis- 
covered by Columbus, or even by the Norwegians. 

It is not known who were the first inhabitants of America, but 
there are evidences that it was inhabited many thousands of years 
before the Norwegian or the Genoa n landed upon its shores — 
thousands of years before the Toltecas, Chech emecas and Aztecas 



356 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXV. 



emigrated from the north to Anahuac. It was from the north 
that the several nations came, one after another, to settle in the 
country of Anahuac. It is only through the monumental remains 
of the remote nations that inhabited America that any knowledge 
of their progress in arts and civilization can be acquired. As to 
who they were and whence they came will remain probably for- 
ever unknown. But in approaching nearer to modern times, the 
period of history, the knowledge of ancient nations, their man- 
ners, customs, religion and commercial intercourse bring new aids 
to investigate the relations of the more recent inhabitants of 
America, found here four hundred and ninety-two years ago, with 
those of the Old World. 

The Abbe Brasseur has the following in his " History of the 
Civilized Nations of Mexico :" 

" After all that we have just shown we believe that it would be 
superfluous to analyze longer the numerous opinions which have 
been hazarded upon the migrations of antiquity to the American 
continent. The common resource of the passage of the twelve 
tribes of Israel led captives by Salmanazar has been employed by 
a great number of writers. We would not, however, den} 7 , in a 
positive manner, that there were not Israelites in America before 
the fifteenth century ; we are persuaded to the contrary, only we 
reject every system which has for its aim to make the ancient 
American civilization the special apanage of anyone nation what- 
soever, African, European or Asiatic. We have had, besides, too 
often an opportunity of admiring among the Indian population 
of Mexico or of Central America Jewish or Egyptian types. More 
than once, likewise, we have observed in these countries profiles 
like to that of the King of Juda, sculptured among the ruins of 
Karnac, and seen Indians in their proud nudity resembling the 
beautiful Egyptian statues of the museums of the Louvre or of 
Turin. A crowd of foreigners, French, Belgian, German, and 
English, have remarked with as much surprise as I, in certain 
Gautemalian villages, the Arabic costumes of the men and the 
Jewish customs of the women of Palin and of the borders of lake 
Amatitlan as perfect and as beautiful as in the pictures of Horace 
Vernet. We will not enter further into the system of Ordony and 
of Juarros, who alike give the Egyptians and the Phoenicians for 
the ancestors of the Toltecas and the Mexicans as well as for the 
founders of the Planque. These systems anciently adopted by 
Siguenza, whose manuscripts we have seen at Mexico, and by 
other writers, are not supported by any positive historic data. 
The passages of Diodorus, of Sicily, and of Aristotle on the sub- 



CHAP. XXXV.] 



OF AMERICA. 



357 



jectof the Carthaginian expeditions, although very curious, and 
giving an appearance of foundation to these systems, are not con- 
clusive. We, therefore, will not reject the possibility of the voy- 
ages of the ancients to America. Humboldt quotes on this subject 
an extremely curious passage from Plutarch. It is a query in 
terms perfectly clear and precise of a great transatlantic continent 
and of a mysterious foreigner, arrived from this distant country 
of Carthage, where he dwelt several years about two or three cen- 
turies before the vulgar era. 

But none of these conjectures are equivalent to the historic 
proofs which the Scandinavians have preserved of their navigation 
to Greenland and other parts of the American continent." As 
the facts in regard to the important events have a close relation to 
the populating of North America and to the probable ancient in- 
tercourse between the two hemispheres, it is proper to give here a 
particular account of them. 

The distance between Norway and Greenland is about eleven 
hundred and fifty miles,* and within this distance are two clusters 
of islands, and the great island called Iceland, which is three hun- 
dred miles in length from east to vsest. and two hundred in its great- 
est breadth, having an area of thirty-nine thousand square miles. 
This island is five hundred miles from Scotland, six hundred from 
Norway, and two hundred and fifty from Greenland. It was dis- 
covered in the year 860 by a Norwegian sea-rover named Noddodr, 
who was accidentally driven upon the coast while on a voyage to 
the Faroe Islands. A few years afterwards a Swede named Gar- 
dar circumnavigated the island. In the year 874 it was colonized 
from Norway, the leader of the emigrants being Ingolf. In the 
course of half a century its coasts were well-tjeopled. and among 
the population were several Scotch and Irish families. 

Beside the great island of Iceland there are two clusters of 
islands, the Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands. The former 
are forty-four leagues west of Bergen, the nearest point of Conti- 
nental Europe. Foula, one of the islands of this cluster, seventeen 
miles west by south of the nearest part of its own mainland, is the 

* As the distance of Iceland from Norway is six hundred miles, and the island 
three hundred miles in length from east to west, and two hundred and fifty from 
Greenland, the sum of these distances, eleven hundred and fifty miles, is proba- 
bly the distance from Bergen, in Norway, to Greenland. The Norwegians at 
that time possessed the Orkney Islands, to the north of Scotland, from which 
islands it is probable the distance to Greenland would be ten hundred and fifty 
miles, Scotland being one hundred miles nearer to Iceland than to Norway, the 
Orkney Islands being still nearer than Scotland. 



358 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXV. 



Ultima Thule of the ancients. The Scandinavians, from whom 
descended the principal inhabitants of these islands, landed here 
probably at or before the sixth century, and found shelter in the 
numerous votes and tortuous friths for their piratical vessels. Re- 
mains of the forts of the Vikings still abound in these islands. 

The Faroe Islands are about the same distance from the Shet- 
land Islands that these are from Norway. The appearance of the 
Faroe Islands, whether approached in fine or bad weather, is in- 
conceivably grand. Nothing can exceed the sublimity of the 
scenery. 

The Faroe Islands, like the Shetland and Orkney, are composed 
of a few large and thinly-peopled islands. The surface is almost 
everywhere hilly, with bold headlands and heights over two 
thousand feet in Stromo and Ostero, culminating with the Selatta- 
relindur (twenty-seven hundred and fifty-six feet in height), on 
the north coast of Ostero. The islands are largely volcanic. The 
people of the Faroe Islands, which were discovered by the Norwe- 
gians in the ninth century, are of Norwegian origin. 

From Iceland rises, to the height of four thousand five hundred 
and thirty-two feet, the famous volcano, Heckla, which has ejected 
ashes to the height of sixteen thousand feet, and volcanic dust has 
frequently been borne by the upper air-currents so as to fall upon 
the Faroe Islands, and has even been carried in considerable quan- 
tities as far as Norway on the one side and the north of Scotland 
on the other. 

Volcanic mountains appear beyond the limits of the uplands in 
the peninsulas. One of the loftiest summits is the Snaefells-Jokull 
(four thousand seven hundred and two feet in height), a perfect 
cone, at the extremity of the peninsula on the north side of Fax a 
Bay, its snow-crest forming a prominent landmark. 

On the east side are several peaks over three thousand feet in 
height, whose sharp outlines are visible at a great distance, tower- 
ing above the surrounding fogs. The Oraefa- Jokull, the culmi- 
nating point of the island, is six thousand four hundred and ten 
feet high. 

The mean axis of the volcanic zone runs from the east side of 
the Vatna- Jokull table-land westwards to the Reykjanes headland. 
Along this line are several craters, of which the best known is 
Hekla, or " Cloak Mountain " (five thousand and ninety-five feet 
high), so named from the clouds of vapor in which its crest is so 
frequently wrapped. 

The Katla or Kotlugja, southernmost of the Icelandic volcanoes, 
and thirty-six miles southeast of Hekla, with which it is often 



CHAP. XXXV.] , OF AMERICA. 359 

confounded, has vomited ashes and torrents of water fifteen times 
since the year 900, but no lava within the historic period. In 
recent years there have been frequent eruptions on the north side 
of the Vatna- Jokull, the most violent of which occurred on March 
29th, 1875, when the snowfields on the east side of the island were 
covered with a layer of pumice reduced to impalpable dust. To- 
wards the east the heavens became almost pitch-dark at noon, and 
a strong westerly gale wafted the ashes across the Norwegian 
snows and even to the neighborhood of Stockholm, eleven hun- 
dred and eighty miles from the centre of activity — the greatest 
distance on record. 

Although its northernmost peninsulas project into the Arctic 
Zone, Iceland is not the last land of the North Atlantic. The pla- 
teau on which it rests is continued northeastward towards the 
Norwegian waters, terminating with a sort of headland which 
rises above the surface to form the elongated island of Jan Mayer, 
immediately beyond the Beerenberg or Bear's Mount, rising to a 
height of six thousand three hundred and seventy-two feet. At 
its northeast end the water suddenly sinks to great depths* 

It is thus seen that these islands were as stations, and their tow- 
ering mountains as sea-marks for the voyagers on their way to the 
western world. The dust of the volcano made known to Scotland 
and to Norway the existence of a land in the far west, and the 
flames of Hekla served as a pharos to light them to it. It was 
probably by degrees that they advanced to it, first to the Shetland, 
then to the Faroe cluster, and thence to Iceland. 

After Iceland had been inhabited nearly a century by a hardy, 
daring and skilful seafaring people, its inhabitants pushed their 
discoveries still further to the west, and in 972 reached Greenland, 
where a colony was established which subsisted there until the 
fifteenth century, when, or about which time, a material change 
for the worse occurred in the climate of Iceland, where, it is said, 
corn formerly grew, by which change Greenland was occupied by 
an unusual accumulation of ice. After this nothing more was 
heard of the Greenland colonies. How they perished is not 
known. 

The old Icelandic Sagas state explicitly that colonies of North- 
men existed on the shores of Greenland from the close of the tenth 
to the beginning of the fifteenth century. From that period to 
the middle of the last century nothing more was heard of them. 
But in 1721 a Norwegian clergyman prevailed on the King of 



* Elisee Keclus. 



360 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES fCHAP. XXXV. 

• L 



Denmark to form a new settlement on the west coast of Green- 
land. Since the establishment of this colony numerous vestiges of 
the ancient one have been discovered — urns, implements, frag- 
ments of church -bells, Runic inscriptions and ruined edifices. 
These numerous vestiges of the former colonies scattered along 
the east coast of Baffin's Bay are doubly interesting and impor- 
tant, for they not only confirm in the most striking manner the 
authenticity of the Sagas in regard to Greenland, but warrant the 
conclusion that those that tell of the discovery of the American 
continent are equally trustworthy.* 

It was from Greenland that the continent of North America was 
discovered about the year 1000, when Leif, son of the Norwegian 
Eerek, surnamed the Red, who had discovered Greenland, fitted 
out in Greenland a vessel with every requisite for a long voyage. 
Leif proceeded southward, and on the coast beyond Cape Cod 
erected some booths, where he spent the winter. The accounts 
given of this locality, which he called Vinland. Wineland, suits 
the coast in the neighborhood of the island Martha's Vineyard, 
on the coast of the State of Massachusetts. 

After passing the winter here, and loading their vessel with 
timber and their boat with grapes, they sailed in the spring for 
Greenland. 

In this account of this expedition of Leif there is no mention 
of Indians having been seen. But when Thorwald, the brother 
of Leif, visited, in the year 1002, the same place, he went out in 
the summer of 1004 to explore the coast to the eastward, and, 
coming to a finely-wooded headland, went on shore with all his 
followers. As they were preparing to go on board they observed 
three canoes, or seal-skin boats, drawn up on the beach, under each 
of which were three Skrsellings, as they were called by the North- 
men. Of the nine they killed eight, one escaping in his canoe.* 
It appears that then they fell into a profound sleep on shore, from 
which they were aroused by one of their company, who had ob- 
served a fleet of canoes approaching. Upon the alarm they has- 
tened to their vessel. " Shortly afterward they saw a number of 
canoes filled with Skrsellings coming from the interior of the bay 
against them." So violent was their assault that, to protect 
themselves, the Norsemen raised battle-screens on the ship's side, 
but the Skrsellings, after discharging volleys of arrows .and shout- 
ing for awhile, left. Thorwald, however, had been mortally wounded 
by an arrow under the arm. 



* Mallet's "Northern Antiquities." 



CHAP. XXXV.] OF AMERICA. 361 

This appears to have been the first encounter between Euro- 
peans and the natives of North America, and shows that the 
country, when first visited from the eastern hemisphere, nearly a 
thousand years ago, was inhabited by a people who appear to 
have been much like those who now inhabit Alaska. 

It is known, from ancient manuscripts, that a custom prevailed 
among the Norsemen throughout the later centuries of paganism, 
in Scandinavia, of burying men of note with their ships. Divers 
ship-tombs have been discovered, and the vessels found very con- 
siderable in size, ranging from boats to sea-going ships. In the 
year 1880 there was found at Gokstad, Norway, in a mound where, 
according to tradition, a king had been buried with his treasures, 
a ship in excellent preservation, which was safely gotten out by 
the aid of the Antiquarian Society in Christiania. Here, at last, 
the actual character of vessels belonging to the Viking period was 
brought to light. 

This ship was not quite new when it was interred, as some wear 
can be found on the rudder and oars. It was built of oak, and 
measured, on the keel, sixty-six feet ; from outside to outside, 
between fore-and-aft, seventy-eight feet; amidship it is sixteen 
and one-half feet broad, and at the same point four feet in depth, 
from top of bulwark to the keel : each planking has ornamental 
mouldings. 

Just as in the Roman ships, there are port-holes in its sides to 
receive the oars. They are set in the third plank from the top 
and midway between the knees. There are sixteen in each side, 
through which slits are cut to pass the oar-blades. To prevent 
the influx from the sea through the ports, when there was no row- 
ing, they were protected on the inside by a circular oak shutter. 
The mast, of which there was only one, was set in an opening in 
a large oak block fixed above the midframes of the vessel. The 
sail was of a square form, made of frieze, or common canvas. 

" The olden times knew of only one kind of a rudder, which had 
its fixed position somewhat before the stern-post, on the right side 
of the vessel. The helm consisted of a plank in the shape of an 
oar with a wide blade, which a little way down was fixed to the 
ship by means of a rope, whilst its round upper neck was caught 
by a grummet, and a square hole in a right angle with the blade 
was made for the tiller in the upper part of the neck. The rud- 
der was also slightly mounted with iron." 

Every ship had its own boat, which, when the vessel put to sea, 
was taken on board. The crew consisted of a master, mate, and 
the oarsmen. There was no deck to the vessel. 



362 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXV. 



When the Columbian Exposition at Chicago was prepared in 
celebration of the discovery of America by Chistopher Columbus, 
the pride and patriotism of the Norwegians were aroused, and 
they determined to send to this Exposition a model of the old 
Viking ship of Gokstad [22], and demonstrate to the world, by 
their own daring achievement, how their ancestors discovered 
America nearly a thousand years ago. 

Captain Magnus Andersen, with whom originated the idea of 
sailing a Viking ship across the Atlantic, applied to some leading 
men in Norway for their assistance, and a few gentlemen in Chris- 
tiania were elected a committee to make a national undertaking 
of it, and they issued invitations all over Norway to support the 
scheme. Thus support came from every part of the world where 
Norwegians were residing ; rich and poor, high and low, old and 
young, even the little school-children gave their saved-up cents ; 
in fact, all gave their share with a cheerful heart. The ship was 
built at Sandefiord, true in every detail and dimensions to the old 
ship, and, once on the water, her standard went to the top, flying 
the name of " Viking," whilst hundreds of men were ready to 
become one of her crew. 

The voyage of the Viking from Bergen, in Norway, to New 
London, in the State of Connecticut, deserves a particular notice, 
as it illustrates the navigation of antiquity, and proves not only 
the ability of vessels of that period to make long voyages, but 
the actual fact of their achievement. The following is a brief 
sketch of the most important part of the particulars of this re- 
markable voyage : 

In the month of April, when the Viking left Christiania, the 
capital of Norway, all the residents were down by the fiord to bid 
the ship and her twelve men on board " farewell " — best wishes 
of a " safe voyage, and kind regards to our brethren in America," 
rang through the air, with no end of cheers from the natives on 
the surrounding hillsides — a sight carrying with it, as it did, such 
intense feeling of joyful, national pride never to be forgotten by 
any of those who witnessed it. Yet the same thing occurred at 
every place where the Viking called on her way round the coast 
to Bergen, and it certainly reached its climax that beautiful Sun- 
day morning, the 30th of April (1893), when the Viking left her 
moorings at. the capital to go to sea. 

A fresh northwesterly wind carried the ship swiftly along, and 
soon brought her out of sight of land. The next day brought 
changeable wind, with rain, which continued on for a couple of 
days, until on the 5th of May, after having passed the Shetland 



CHAP. XXXV.] 



OP AMERICA. 



303 



Islands, a southerly gale sprung up, with very heavy sea. The sails 
had to be reefed, and pumping or bailing was kept up all day and 
night, as the vessel was taking great quantities of water forward, 
at times, especially about noon, when the sea had become ex- 
tremely boisterous, and threatened to fill the ship; but she behaved 
splendidly on the tops of the mighty waves, and proved herself a 
good sea-boat, well worthy the confidence that had been placed 
in her. The rudder on the side was in every way most satisfac- 
tory, and during the storm it was proven beyond a doubt that its 
action was as perfect as any of our modern steering gears, and the 
men at the rudder had no difficulty in handling it. The follow- 
ing day the storm was settling down, and a fresh southerly wind 
filled the Viking's sails, while the sea had quieted down to such 
an extent that hardly a drop of water got on board. On Monday, 
the 8th of May, the wind changed to northerly, with a sea rolling 
heavily. The next evening a strong gale of wind prevailed with 
a heavy sea. The wind had changed in the morning to south- 
west, and kept on growing in strength, until at eleven o'clock it 
became necessary to reef, and at noon a terrific storm was raging, 
with mountain-high seas, which seemed to reach a climax at four 
o'clock, when sails were made fast, and the sea-anchor had to be 
put out, and by the aid of oil bags the ship was kept steady in the 
wild play of the waves. Towards evening the storm began to 
calm down ; to the delight of all on board, as little rest had been 
found during the day in their soaked clothes. About noon the 
next day the sea-anchor could be hauled on board, and the square 
sail with three reefs hoisted to hurry the Viking along before a 
southerly wind, through the still somewhat heavy sea. 

During the following week the Viking experienced compara- 
tively fair weather, and everything went on splendidly. The 17th 
of May, the Norwegian independence day, was a grand day on 
board. Favored with the finest weather that could be desired, 
the ship was doing her ten miles (per hour?), and everybody on 
board was in the best of humor. The 17th of May in Norway 
is what the 4th of July is to Americans. 

Nothing important occurred until Sunday, the 21st of May, 
when, just as dinner was served out, the man on the lookout re- 
ported " A steamer ahead." The steamer proved to be the Ameri- 
thia, of Glasgow, whose commander, Captain Crayton, courteously 
undertook to forward the letters and telegrams of the Viking. 

The next few days the wind varied, partly accompanied by fogs, 
and on the 24th of May the steamship Accides, of Glasgow, was 
passing, exchanging signals. Fog and icebergs were now begin- 



364 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXV. 



ning to trouble the Viking, and the thermometer was several 
times approaching zero, but fortunately everything went all right 
until Saturday, the 28th of May, when Cape Spear was sighted. 
A towboat from St. Johns came out to the Viking, which had been 
taken for a dismasted schooner. The captain of the tug (Mr. Cross) 
most obligingly undertook to mail the Viking's letters and tele- 
grams. On the following Monday Cape Race was passed, twenty- 
nine days after leaving Bergen. 

The next two weeks went by slowly, on account of very little 
wind, and it was not until Sunday, the 11th of June, that land 
was sighted, south of Cape Cod. 

Words cannot express what the men on board the Viking felt 
as they now for the first time sighted the United States. History 
came back to them in all its vividness ; Leif Erickson's deeds 
flashed through their minds, and there he stood, all alive, before 
them, and suddenly they knew they had been the means of prov- 
ing what was recorded in the Sagas was actually correct and true, 
and what they hiad done was only what their forefathers had done 
before them. 

In a strong wind and with all sails set the Viking commenced 
to beat down the coast in company with a number of coasting 
vessels, and it did not take long to find out her superior sailing 
qualities, as she was gaining on many of her companions, who were 
wondering how this copy of a thousand-years-old ship could be 
such a seaworthy vessel that she could beat the modern construc- 
tions in sailing, even with the wind ahead. The following Monday 
morning the Viking passed through Nantucket Shoals and down 
through Vineyard Sound, which was passed in the thickest of fogs 
and during the night, and it was only by the aid of soundings 
and the fog-horn that the " 1893 Viking " safely found her way, so 
that she, on the 13th of June, could sight the Newport land, and 
the same afternoon she arrived at New London harbor, where her 
anchor was dropped at 5.30. As the anchor went, there is no doubt 
a feeling of ease arose in every man's breast on board the Viking, 
as now was, practically, the dangerous part of their voyage at an 
end, and, taken on the whole, their task had not been of such a 
terrible nature as had been painted by most people at the outset. 
It is true every seeker of comfort will not find much on board the 
Viking to gratify his cravings for what he terms necessities of life, 
but the Vikings were, nevertheless, very well pleased with the sim- 
ple and modest luxuries given them. 

Their sleeping arrangements proved most satisfactory, though 
there was no room for any bunks to be fitted up, and each man 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



365 



had to look out for his own place where to lie down to rest. His 
bed consisted of an oil-skin bag, into which was put a reindeer- 
skin, and on the top of this was placed a bag made of three blan- 
kets, into which the man crept, thus splendidly protected against 
cold and water. 

Even in the bad weather they experienced across the ocean, it 
was no difficulty for the steward to have all meals ready at the 
fixed hours and served in first-class condition, and what certainly 
speaks for the cook is that he, in fine weather, gave all on board a 
treat by baking fresh bread. 

From New London all the way up to Chicago the Viking met 
with one endless greeting of welcome. To pencil all the recep- 
tions, banquets and honors bestowed upon Captain Andersen and 
his men would fill volumes, and it must suffice to say that never 
did any nation receive a foreign representative more royally than 
the welcome the American people extended to the little Viking. 
It may truly be said that never before did Norse blood make such 
a claim on its descendants as when the Viking ship arrived at and 
passed through American waters.* 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



Ancient Navigation — Navies, Vessels, Voyages, Crews — The Shipwreck of St. 
Paul — Egyptian and Indian Ships, their Construction and Navigation — 
Carthaginian Navigation — Ancient Naval Architecture. 

Fourteen hundred years before the voyage in which Leif Erick- 
son discovered America the ancients constructed vessels similar to 
those of the Vikings, and others much larger and stronger. 

It is the general opinion that in the Homeric age sailors did not 
venture into the open sea, but that such was really done is clear 
from the fact that Homer makes Ulysses say that he had lost sight 
of land, and saw nothing but the sky and sea, although on the 
whole it may be admitted that even down to the later historical 
times the navigation of the ancients was confined to coasting along 
the shore. 

After the times of the Trojan war navigation — and with it the 
art of ship-building— must have become generally improved, on 
account of the establishment of the numerous colonies on foreign 
coasts and the increased commercial intercourse with these colo- 



" Viking," by Alfred A. Holm. 



366 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



nies and other foreign countries. The practice of piracy, which 
was during this period carried on to a great extent, not only be- 
tween Greeks and foreigners, but also among the Greeks them- 
selves, must likewise have contributed to the improvement of 
ships and of navigation, although no particulars are mentioned. 
In Greece itself the Corinthians were the first who brought the art 
of shipbuilding nearest to the point at which we find it in the 
time of Thucydides, and they were the first to introduce ships 
with three ranks of rowers. About the year 700 b.c. Ameinocles, 
the Corinthian, to whom this invention is ascribed, made the Sa- 
mians acquainted with it. They must have been preceded by 
biremes. About the time of Cyrus the Phocians introduced long, 
sharp-keeled ships. These belonged to the class of long war-ships, 
and had fifty rowers, twenty-five on each side of the ship, who 
sat in one row. Before this time vessels with large, round or flat 
bottoms had been used exclusively by the Ionians, in Asia. At 
this period most Greeks seem to have adopted the long ships, with 
only one rank of rowers on each side. Their names varied accord- 
ingly as they had fifty, thirty or even a smaller number of rowers.* 

The Athenians had intimate commercial relations with some of 
the cities on or near the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and Herodotus 
himself, who was born 484 years b. c, visited the Palus Meotis, or 
Sea of Azof, by passing through the Pontus Euxinus, or Black Sea, 
which shows how extensive was the navigation of the Greeks at 
this remote period. 

" The first Greek people who acquired a navy of importance were 
the Corinthians, Samians and Phocians. About the time of Cyrus 
and Cambyces the Corinthian triremes were generally adopted by 
the Sicilian tyrants and by the Corcyrans, who soon acquired the 
most powerful navies among the Greeks. In other parts of Greece 
the most common vessels about this time were long ships, with 
only one rank of rowers. Athens did not obtain a fleet of any 
importance until the time of Themistocles (514 to 449 b. a), who 
persuaded them to build two hundred triremes. But even then 
ships were not provided with complete decks covering the whole 
of the vessel ; a complete deck appears to have been an invention 
of later times. Pliny ascribes it to the Thasians, and before this 
event vessels had only small decks at the poop and the prow."f 

The various kinds of ships used by the Greeks are classed by 
Pliny according to the number of ranks of rowers employed in 
them, as moneres, biremes, triremes, quadriremes, quinquiremes, 

* Anthon. 

f Homer, 907 b. c, mentions decked vessels. 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



367 



etc. All these appear to have been constructed on the same prin- 
ciple, and it is more convenient to divide them into ships of war 
and ships of burden. The latter were not calculated for quick 
movement or rapid sailing, but to carry the greatest possible 
quantity of goods. Although they were not without rowers, yet 
the chief means by which they were propelled were their sails. 

The most common ships of war, after they had been generally 
introduced, were the triremes. Triremes were divided into two 
classes, the one consisting of real men-of-war, which were swift 
sailing-vessels, and the other of transports, either for soldiers or for 
horses. Ships of this class were not used in battle except in cases 
of necessity. The ordinary size of the war-galley may be inferred 
from the fact that the average number of men engaged in it, in- 
cluding the crew and marines, was two hundred, to whom on some 
occasions as many as thirty epibatas* were added. The rapidity 
with which these war-galleys sailed appears to have been so great 
that even we cannot look upon it without astonishment when we 
find that an ancient trireme nearly equalled that of a modern 
steamboat. 

Vessels of more than three banks of oars were not constructed 
in Greece until about the year 400 b. c, when Dionysius of Syra- 
cuse built the first quinquireme, with which he had probably be- 
come acquainted through the Carthaginians, since the invention 
of these vessels is ascribed to them. After the time of Alexander 
the Great the use of vessels with four, five, and more ranks of 
rowers became very general, and it is well known from Polybius 
that the first Punic war was chiefly carried on with quinquiremes. 
Ships with twelve, thirty, and even forty ranks of rowers appear 
to have been mere curiosities, and did not come into common use. 

In the year 356 b. c. the Athenians continued to use nothing 
but triremes, but in 330 b. c. the Republic had already a number 
of quadriremes. The first quinquiremes at Athens are mentioned 
in a document belonging to the year 325 b. c. 

Boekh has calculated that each trireme on an average had one 
hundred and seventy rowers. In a quinquireme, during the first 
Punic war, the average number of rowers was three hundred ; in 
later times we find even as many as four hundred. 

Most ancient ships had but one sail, which was attached with 
the yard to the great mast. In v a trireme, too, one sail might 

* Epibatfe were entirely distinct from the rowers, and also from the land sol- 
diers. They were, probably, heavily-armed men. They were appointed to de- 
fend the vessels in the Athenian navy. 



368 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



be sufficient, but the trierarch* might nevertheless add a second. 
As each of the two masts of a trireme had two sailyards, it follows 
that each mast had two sails, one of which was placed lower than 
the other. The sails of the Attic war-galleys, and of most ancient 
ships in general, were of a square form.j 

When we consider the remote time at which Crete and Cyprus 
were settled, and the relation of these islands to Egypt, there is 
reason to believe that in the earliest times of ancient history there 
were communications of these two islands with the great centre of 
ancient civilization in the West of the Old World, and that even 
at that period navigators sailed from these islands through the 
Mediterranean beyond the sight of land until they reached their 
destination on the mainland. 

The Phoenicians founded Carthage at what would have been 
considered in those days an enormous distance from the mother 
country. It is hardly to be believed that such a maritime nation, 
that had circumnavigated Africa, crawled along the western and 
southern coasts of the Mediterranean to reach their colony or to 
reach Tarsis. 

The Carthaginians had colonies on the island of Malta, on 
Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Isles, besides on the coast of Spain. 
To reach these colonies the Carthaginians necessarily launched 
forth into the Mediterranean and sailed direct to their destination. 

Egypt and Mauritania were the granaries of Rome. From Al- 
exandria and Carthage this grain was transported direct through 
the Mediterranean to its destination, and necessarily the vessels 
must have sailed out of sight of land. 

Paul sailed from Csesarea, in Palestine, in a ship of Adraymit- 
tium, in Mesia, going northward to Sidon; from Sidon the vessel 
went to the island of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. 
The thirty-fifth degree of latitude passes through the centre of the 
island. From Cyprus he went to Myra. in Lycia, a little north of 
the thirty-sixth degree, where the Centurion, who had charge of 
him and other prisoners, went with them on board of a ship of 
Alexandria bound for Italy, where, after sailing slowly for many 
days and scarcely come opposite the island of Cnidus, they 
sailed under the island of Crete between the thirty-fifth degree and 
thirty-sixth degree latitude, opposite Salmone, and hardly passed 
it when they came to a place called Fair Haven, nigh unto the 
city of Lasea, on the south side of the island of Crete, which is 
between the thirty-fifth degree and thirty-sixth degree of latitude. 

* Captains of triremes. 

f Anthon's " Dictionary of Greek and Eoman Antiquities. " 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



369 



Now much time was spent, and the sailing dangerous, and bocau.se 
the haven was not commodious to winter in, the most of them ad- 
vised to depart thence and endeavor to reach Phenice, a haven of 
Crete, and winter there ; but when they thought they had obtained 
their purpose they sailed close to Crete, but not long after there 
arose against them a tempestuous wind, against which the vessel 
could not bear up, so they went before the wind, running under a 
certain island called Clauda, and so being exceedingly tossed by 
the tempest, they lightened the ship, and the third day cast out 
the tackling of the ship, and when neither sun nor stars appeared 
in many days, and the tempest continued, all hope was lost; but 
when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and 
down the Adriatic, about midnight the sailors deemed that they 
drew near land, and sounded and found twenty fathoms, and 
when they had gone a little farther they sounded again and found 
fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest they should strike against 
rocks, they cast four anchors out at the stern and waited for day ; 
and when the sailors, under pretence of casting anchors forward, 
had let down the boat into the sea, in order to escape, the Cen- 
turion ordered the soldiers to cut the ropes of the boat and let 
it fall off. They then lightened the ship and cast out the wheat 
into the sea, and when it was day they knew not the land, but 
they discovered a certain creek into which they determined, if pos- 
sible, to thrust the ship ; therefore when they had taken up the 
anchors they hoisted the main sail, made toward the shore, and 
ran the ship aground. The forepart stuck fast and remained im- 
movable, but the hinder part was broken by the violence of the 
waves. Then the Centurion commanded that they who could 
swim should leap into the sea and swim to shore. The rest, some 
on boards and some on pieces of the wreck, succeeded in reaching 
the land, and so they all escaped, being in all two hundred and 
seventy-five in number. And when they had escaped they then 
knew that the island was Melita, the inhabitants of which showed 
them no little kindness, for they kindled a fire and received every- 
one kindly, because of the rain and cold. In the same quarter 
were the possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name 
was Publius, who received and lodged them three clays courte- 
ously, and when they departed loaded them with such things as 
were necessary. After three months they left in a ship of Alex- 
andria, whose sign was Castor and Pollux, which had wintered on 
the island. They landed at Syracuse and remained there three 
days; thence, making a circuit, they went to Rhegium. and thence 
to Puteoli.* 

* Acts of the Apostles, xxvii. and xxviii. 
24 



370 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



Puteoli, or Pouzzoli, about three miles from Naples, is on the 
Bay of Baia, a branch of the Bay of Naples, where the great 
bridge, said to have been built by Caligula across this bay, formed 
a secure and closed harbor. Some of the abutments of this bridge 
still exist, and in the hills surrounding this harbor are still to be 
seen the massive foundations of great edifices that once covered 
their sides and crowned their summits. Here was the great naval 
depot of the Roman empire, and hence was about thirty-six hours' 
travel by land to Rome. 

" Publius, who received Paul into his house during three days, 
is called by St. Luke Prote of the Island. This term Prote was 
assumed by the first magistrates of the Phoenicians and the Car- 
thaginians, from whence the Maltese, who were a Phoenician 
colony, had borrowed it. It is wherefore we still see an inscrip- 
tion where the first magistrate of Malta is called Perote des 
Miletians."* 

It is to be observed, in this account of St. Paul's voyage, that 
the two hundred and seventy-five shipwrecked persons were put 
on board the vessel from Alexandria, who, with the crew of that 
vessel, made probable a total of at least four hundred persons, 
thus indicating the size of that vessel. 

It is also to be observed that the ships of those times did not 
travel during the winter, but hibernated three or four months, 
thus showing why their voyages were so long between points that 
required a year or more of navigation. 

It appears from this account of Paul's voyage that his ship was 
for many days tossed about by the tempest, being driven by it 
from near the centre of the southern coast of Crete to Malta, a 
distance of ten degrees of latitude ; and the whole management 
of the vessel, in finally running it aground, shows that nautical 
skill in those days was much the same as it is now, and that the 
navigators of those days did not timidly sail closely to the shores, 
but through the Mediterranean Sea from island to island on the 
way to their destination. 

The Egyptians must have been acquainted, at a very early 
period, with the three principal sorts of vessels which, sooner or 
later, prevailed in every country intersected by large rivers and 
washed by the sea, Irrigated by the periodical inundations of 
the Nile, bounded on the north by the Mediterranean and on the 
east by the Red Sea, and bordering on Phoenicia, the active, enter- 

* Translation into French of the inscription, which was in Greek : ''Disser- 
tation Historique et Critique sur la Naufrage de S. Paul," par M. l'Abbe Lavo- 
cat, Bibliothecare de Sarbonne. 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



371 



prising genius of whose people spurned the petty interesl of a 
coasting-trade and braved the tempest on the const of Africa and 
the Grecian Archipelago ; Egypt, industrial, commercial, and am- 
bitious, could not but possess, in the first instance, an extensive 
river-navigation, and shortly afterwards a mercantile marine, to- 
gether with vessels adapted for war when she found reason to fear 
the hostile attacks of armed rivals on her cargoes of provisions or 
of manufactured goods, and perceived that invectives of aggression 
or the instinct of defence were fortifying by warlike methods the 
foreign vessels which frequented her shores for trade, thus extort- 
ing concessions from the fears of the weak and claiming respecl 
from the strong by means of military prowess. 

It is difficult to determine from what era dates the maritime 
commerce of Egypt, or when their mercantile vessels were first 
armed in warlike guise, except so far as we may indulge con- 
jectures founded upon the oral recitals received by Herodotus 
from the priests of Vulcan at Memphis. But these are so vague, 
and have so many palpable fables wearing the semblance of truth, 
that their authority cannot possess much weight. It is beyond 
belief that no fleets were equipped during the obscure period 
which extends from Menes to Meris, and includes the reigns of 
three hundred and thirty kings, or, according to Larcher's calcu- 
lations, about eleven thousand years. Either Egypt must have 
been a small, weak, powerless State, or else it could never, for so 
long a time, have continued in a state of maritime inaction. 
Either its neighbors must have made aggressions upon its territory 
and caused it to arm its vessels in its own defence, or otherwise, 
being itself actuated by ambition or urged by necessity, invaded 
the quiet of some distant people tranquilly cultivating a fertile 
soil ; in either of which cases the Egyptians must necessarily 
have possessed a navy provided with warriors, arms, and warlike 
machines. 

If Sesostris sailed from the Arabian Gulf with vessels of war for 
the subjugation of the nations dwelling on the shores of the Indian 
Ocean (Herodotus II.), the Egyptian navy must already have ac- 
quired, before this time, a considerable degree of importance. Nor 
could a people who had brought the arts, and especially mechanics, 
to such a pitch of perfection as is testified by their pyramids, their 
temples, and their extensive catacombs, have allowed their naval 
operations to continue in an anomalous degree of debasement so 
as to have neither merchant ships capable of transporting valuable 
and weighty cargoes nor vessels of war for the defence of their 
coasts against hostile attacks. 



372 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



All the marine Egyptian remains at present known to us testify 
to an advanced state of the arts, and the most remarkable of these 
dates as far back as the time of Rameses IV., or about 1450 b. c. 
These could not have been the representation of a new state of 
things nor the figures they contain the results of a recent inven- 
tion. The row-galleys to be seen in the celebrated bas-relief at 
Thebes, copied at the time of the French expedition to Egypt, are 
very different from the rude essays of navigation in the stage of 
timidity where it employs only rafts committed to the current of a 
stream, or, at most, ventures over the depths of a lake or broad 
river with the hollow trunk of a tree rudely guided by paddles. 

It is not easy to form a precise idea of the Greek galleys at the 
time of the Peloponnesian war, but according to the best of our 
knowledge they were not very different from those which had 
been constructed by the ship-builders of Rameses IV. The bas- 
relief with which that monarch decorated the porticos of his pal- 
ace at Thebes, with the view of perpetuating the memory of a 
naval battle gained by the Eg3 r ptians over one of the nations 
dwelling on the coast of the Indian Ocean, contains nine long- 
vessels or galleys, four of them Egyptian and five manned by In- 
dians. The nine ships in this bas-relief have a striking resem- 
blance to each other. True it is, that while the Egyptians have 
oars, the Indians are without them. But this circumstance not 
only occasions no sensible difference between the Egyptian gal- 
leys and the Indian ships in the shape of the hull, the length, 
breadth, and height of the bulwarks, but it does not at all follow 
that the Indians were destitute of oars or unaccustomed to their 
use. They might have been shipped in order to furl the sails, or 
possibly they may have withdrawn their oars during the combat, 
in order that the rowers might take an active part in the contest, 
their crews being inferior in number to those of the Egyptians. 
Neither the Indian nor the Egyptian vessels were flat-bottomed, 
for it is evident that the sculptor intended to design the round- 
ness of their alveus when he marked the keel, which is very dis- 
tinctly curved, and at the same time he indicated in the direction 
of the keel and that of the line of oars in the middle of the vessel, 
the depth of the ship and its capacity. The length of the Egyp- 
tian galleys is rather difficult to demonstrate, but Mr. Jal seems 
to have obtained the result by combinations, which have great 
likelihood. He first ascertained the distance between the oars to 
be about four feet, which he calculated by the space between the 
rowers and the attitude of their bodies, which he observed to be 
the same in Mr. Wilkinson's wood-cut No. 372 as in the paint- 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



373 



ing which he examined. These rowers have the same floating 
attitude, carrying the body forward, sitting, one foot on the bench 
of the fore and one on the poop-side; then throwing themselves 
back with all their might upon their seats, produce the greatest 
impulse upon the oars. 

Mr. Jal distinguishes the figure of the king, who assists in the 
battle with the grandees of the empire, by his colossal greatness 
in proportion to the rest. The Indian prisoners are represented 
smaller than the triumphant Egyptians. The pilots, who are of 
the ninth class of the Egyptian populace, are pictured as very 
little, compared to the soldiers, who are regarded of the second 
class. The slingers, of whom there is one in every ship, placed in 
a sort of basket somewhat like an overturned bell, who assail the 
enemy with stones from the top of the mast, are designed of the 
same size as the pilots, and are only regarded as of the seventh 
class. 

The Egyptians were the first to entertain the project of cutting 
an artificial canal, with a view to establishing a communication 
across the Isthmus of Suez, between the Mediterranean and the 
Red Sea. The vestiges of this undertaking are still discernible, 
and the universal testimony of ancient writers leaves no doubt 
that its execution was commenced. It is also evident that the 
Egyptians were the instructors in navigation of the ancient Greeks, 
whose excursions did not extend beyond the Mediterranean. 

That the ancient Egyptian boats were built with ribs like those 
of the present day, is sufficiently proven by the rude models 
discovered in the tombs of Thebes. 

The sails of the ancient boats appear to have been always 
square, with a yard above and below. 

The cabins of the Egyptian boats were lofty and spacious; 
they did not, however, always extend over the whole breadth of 
the boat, but merely occupied the centre, the rowers sitting on 
either side. The lotus was one of their favorite devices, and was 
very common on the blade of the rudder, where it was frequently 
repeated at both ends, together with an eye. But the place con- 
sidered particularly suited to the eye was the head or bow of the 
boat, and the custom is still retained in some countries to the 
present day. In India it is very generally adopted, and we even 
see the small barks which ply in the harbor of Malta bearing the eye 
on their bows in the same manner as the boats of the ancient Egyp- 
tians,* Streamers were occasionally attached to the pole of the 



* The Chinese river-boats also have an eye on each side of the bow. 



374 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



rudder, and a standard was erected near the head of the, vessel, 
which generally had on it the figure of a sacred animal, a sphinx, 
or some emblem connected with religion or royalty , and some- 
times the top of the mast bore a shrine of feathers, the symbol of 
the deity to whose protection they committed themselves during 
their voyage.* 

There is a striking resemblance in some points between the boats 
of the ancient Egyptians and those of India ; and the form of the 
stern, the principle and construction of the rudder, the cabins, the 
square sail, the copper eye on each side of the head, the line of 
small squares at the side, like false windows, and the shape of the 
oars of boats used on the Ganges forcibly call to mind those of the 
Nile represented in the paintings of the Theban tombs. 

At the head a forecastle frequently projected above the deck, 
which was assigned to the man who held the fathoming-pole, and 
at the stern another of similar form was sometimes added, where 
the steersman sat. They were generally adopted and found of 
great service in war-galleys. 

The galleys, or ships of war, differed, in their construction, from 
the boats of the Nile. They were less raised at the head and stern, 
and on each side, throughout the whole length of the vessel, a 
wooden bulwark, rising considerably above the gunwale, sheltered 
the rowers, who sat behind it, from the missiles of the enemy ; 
the handles of the oars passed through an aperture at the lower 
part. 

The sail was reefed by means of ropes running in pulleys or 
loops upon the }^ards. The ends of these ropes, which were usu- 
ally four in number — dividing the sails, as it were, into five folds — 
were attached to the lower part of the mast, so as to be readily 
worked when the sail required to be pulled up at a moment's no- 
tice. In this respect, and in the absence of a lower yard, the sail 
of the war-galley greatly differed from that of the boats of the 
Nile. 

Some of the boats of the Nile were furnished with forty-four 
oars, twenty-two being represented on each side, which, allowing 
for the steerage and prow, would require their total length to be 
about one hundred and twenty feet. They were furnished, like all 
the others, with one large square sail, but the mast, instead of being 
single, was made of two limbs of equal length, sufficiently open 
at the top to admit the yard between them, and secured by several 
strong stays, one of which extended to the prow and others to the 

* The Spanish and Italian sailors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries put 
their vessels under the protection of some saint. 



chap, xxxvr.] 



OF AMERICA. 



375 



steerage of the boat. Over the top of the mast a light rope was 
passed, probably intended for furling the sail, which, from the 
horizontal lines represented upon it, appears to have been like 
those of the Chinese. 

. The small Egyptian galley does not appear to have been fur- 
nished with a beak like those of the Romans, which, being of 
brass sharply pointed and sometimes below the water's surface, 
did great damage to an enemy's vessel; but a lion's head fixed to 
the prow supplied its place, and being probably of metal. was 
capable of doing great execution when the galley was impelled by 
the force of sixteen or twenty oars. 

At the extremity of the yards were braces, which, being held by 
a man seated in the steerage or upon the cabin, served to turn the 
sail to the right and left ; they were common to all boats, as with 
the Romans, and managed in the same manner. 

The mode of steering the boat is different from that usually 
depicted in the Egyptian paintings, and instead of a rudder in the 
centre of the stern or at either side, it is furnished with three on 
the same side. 

There is no instance of a boat with a rudder on both sides, nor 
do we find them provided with more than one mast and a single 
sail. Sometimes the rudder, instead of traversing in a groove or 
hollow space, merely rested on the exterior of the curved stern, 
and was suspended by a rope or bands ; but that method was con- 
fined to boats used in religious ceremonies on the river. 

The masts were probably made of the fir, of which great quan- 
tities were annually imported into Egypt from Syria. The planks, 
the rib and the keel were of the acacia. The foot of the mast was 
let into a strong beam which crossed the whole breadth of the 
boat; it was supported by and lashed to a knee rising to a con- 
siderable height before it, and the many stout stays fastened at the 
head, stern and sides sufficiently secured it. 

In ships of war the yard was allowed to remain aloft after the 
sail had been reefed, but in the boats of the Nile, which had a yard 
at the top and bottom of the sail, as soon as it was furled the} r 
lowered the upper yard, and in this position it remained until 
they prepared for their departure. To loosen the sail from the 
upper yard must have been a tedious operation, if it was bound 
to it with the many lacings represented in some of the paintings. 

The use of pulleys, of which Mr. Wilkinson gives but one indi- 
cation, is fully admitted and proven by Mr. Jal. The galleys were 
always decked, and it seems that, with the exception of very small 
boats, all other Egyptian vessels were decked over the hold. 

The yards were evidently of great size and of two separate pieces. 



376 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



and crossed or joined together in the middle, sometimes supported 
by five or six lifts, and so firmly secured that men could stand 
or sit upon them while engaged in arranging the sail, and from 
the upper yard were suspended several ropes resembling the 
•' horses " of our square-rigged ships, and perhaps intended for 
the same purpose when they furled the sail. 

Many of the sails were painted with rich colors or embroidered 
with fanciful devices representing the phoenix, flowers and various 
emblems ; some were adorned with chequers, and others were 
striped like those of the present day. This kind of cloth, or 
embroidered linen, appears to have been made in Egypt expressly 
for sails, and was bought by the Tyrians for that purpose: but its 
use was confined to the pleasure-boats of the grandees or the king 
himself, ordinary sails being white. Mr. Jal contests the employ- 
ment of the papyrus for sea-boats. He concludes the papyrus 
boats could have been but very small and only for light burthens, 
and thinks Pliny rather rashly admitted unexact reports when he 
wrote that the vessels of papyrus sailed to Taprobane (Ceylon ), 
which was quite impossible. 

The Egyptians, on becoming more advanced in industry, re- 
placed the papyrus in their sails by a linen tissue made of hemp- 
thread and joined with small twisted strips of oxen-skin. In all 
ships of war the ropes then were made of hemp, instead of the 
fibre of the byblus, as formerly. 

The custom of dyeing the sails of ships was. says Pliny, " first 
adopted in the fleet of Alexander the Great when navigating the 
Indus;''* but that it was practiced long before in Egypt is evident 
from the paintings at Thebes of the time of Rameses the Third, 
nine hundred years previous to the age of Alexander. 

The edges of the sails were furnished with a strong hem or 
border, also neatly covered, serving to strengthen it. and prevent 
injury, and a light rope was generally sewn around it for the 
same purpose. 

The oars of the galleys were, according to Mr. Jal's calculation, 
fifteen feet long, six feet of which were inside the galley. One end 
was worked into a long round handle, and the other extremity 
was a large flat blade, which had rather the form of a heart than 
of a long oval paddle. 

The great length of the oars used on the upper tier by the 
Carthaginians must have made them very unwieldy, for the 
length of the oar was necessarily increased with each ascending 
tier, therefore it was necessary not only to place the stoutest and 

* Alexander having adopted this custom when in India, it is probable he 
found it prevalent there. 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



377 



most athletic rowers at the upper oars, but likewise to load the 
handles of them with lead, in order to counterbalance the great 
weight without. These rowers were distinct from the soldiers 
who fought, for rowing was esteemed a great drudgery, and was 
not unfrequently in ancient as in modern times the punishment 
of malefactors, who were chained perpetually to the benches on 
which they rowed. 

The breadth of a galley was about sixteen feet. In the carved 
representation of the galley which Mr. Jal examined, there were 
no more than eight or ten oars on each side, forming only sixty 
feet of length, but he shows they were much longer. Mr. Wilkin- 
son's wood-cut, No. 372, represents a galley of twenty-two oars, 
which gives it the same length of a galley of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. It is very probable their ships-of-war were quite as long, 
and had at least forty-four oar-benches, consequently we should 
suppose the length of these ships to be from one hundred and 
sixteen to one hundred and twenty feet. 

Mr. Jal proves that the forecastle of the Egyptian galley was 
decked, and that the soldiers fought on the forecastle. As regards 
the anchor, Mr. Jal says : " That among all the Egyptian naval 
figures with which he is acquainted he could not find one object 
resembling an anchor." Probably they used large stones or masses 
of stone for the same office, which Mr. Jal believes from the fol- 
lowing passage of Herodotus : 

"They are thus guided — the boats of burden in descending 
the Nile have a hurdle of twisted cane and furze, and a perforated 
stone of about two talents weight (about one hundred-weight). 
The hurdle is bound with a rope in front of the ship, which is al- 
lowed to float on the course of the current. The stone is fastened 
behind wdth another rope ; the hurdle carried away by the rapid 
stream, pulls after it the baris — for thus the kind of ship is called. 
The stone behind drags the bottom of the water and serves to 
guide its course." If at the time of Sesostris no other means of 
stopping the ships at sea or on the Nile w r ere known, this surely 
must have been. 

Arrian relates that in the temple of the Goddess of Phasis he 
was shown the anchor of the ship Argo ; that it was of iron. The 
resemblance of this anchor w r ith those of the cotemporarv Greeks 
of the second century a.u.c. led him to believe that it was poste- 
rior to the expedition of the Argonauts. He adds : " That in the 
same temple there were very old fragments of a stone anchor, 
which was more likely to be the anchor of the ship Argo." 

Athenseus, speaking of the celebrated ship of Ptolemy Philo- 
pater, says that ci it had four wooden anchors and eight iron an- 



378 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



chors." The iron anchors could have been but ingots of a con- 
siderable weight. As for wooden anchors, they were great tubes 
filled with lead. We read in the " Antiquities of Diodorus " that 
the Phoenicians, after having laden their vessels with silver in 
Sicily, extracted the lead from their anchors and replaced it with 
silver.* 

Mr. Jal purposely multiplies examples to prove that the anchor 
was long a mass, acting merely from weight, and that even when 
the iron was bent to bite into the earth with a sharp tooth, and 
the Greeks could call it ancura, from the word ancuros (crooked), 
the primitive anchor was still used. 

Mr. Jal says he persists in thinking that the ancient Egyptian 
anchor was nothing but a shapeless stone. If the mariners co- 
temporary with Rameses III. knew of the crooked anchor, we 
should rind it in some of the naval representations taken from 
the ancient monuments. Its form is such that the Egyptians 
would not have neglected it: besides, it was of such importance 
that the artist would have represented it, at least sometimes, since 
they always represented the fathoming-pole and the weapon of 
the military officer. 

Mr. Jal says that doubtless the vessels-of-war had a national 
or royal pavilion, and that he cannot comprehend why the author 
of the bas-relief of Thebes abstained from setting up at the mast 
or at the flagstaff the Egyptian ensign, or the figure of the deity 
under the protection of which Sesostris surely did not fail to 
place his fleet when it set out for the great and perilous expedi- 
tion to India. This was a detail of the highest importance, and 
could not have escaped the pointed attention of the artist. 

Duly to appreciate the quality of the Egyptian ship of the time 
of Rameses IV. would require elements of which we have not, 
and which could not be supplied by any hypothesis which we 
might found upon our own knowledge of naval construction of 
that epoch. Herodotus tells us that in long days a vessel makes 
altogether seventy thousand orgies, and sixty thousand per night. 
According to the calculations of Lascher, the vessel made one and 
three-quarters of a league per hour. 

Mr. Jal demonstrates that the swift galley of the seventeenth 
century is a faithful copy of the Egyptian galley of the fifteenth 
century B.C., which he thinks a fact of great importance to 
learned men and naval history, and confirms the old proverb that 
" There is nothing new under the sun," for maritime science, after 

* The first Grecian vessel — a Samian — that visited Tartessus, in Spain, did 
the same act. These two accounts, one of Herodotus, the other of Diodorus, 
may be of the same event. 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



379 



a lapse of more than three thousand years, was almost at the 
same stage as at first. 

Some Egyptian vessels appear to have been of 7ery greal size. 
Diodorus mentions one of cedar wood, dedicated by Sesostris to 
the god of Thebes, four hundred and twenty feet long; another 
built by Caligula, in Egypt, to transport one of the obelisks to 
Rome. Jal does not believe in the ship of Ptolemy Philopater. 

Very large ships were known in ancient times. Lucien in one 
of his dialogues mentions an Egyptian ship, named I sis, one hun- 
dred and twenty-six cubits long, more than thirty cubits broad, and 
twenty-nine cubits high from the hold to the upper deck. This 
colossal ship of the second century had a great affinity to a French 
vessel of war of the third rank. The Egyptian art was far from 
its infancy twelve hundred years after the great naval armament 
of Rameses IV. 

The Phoenicians were, according to Herodotus, the first who un- 
dertook long voyages. Among the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, 
and Greeks, the earlier ships used in common were flat-bottomed, 
broad, and of small draught of water; the floor-timbers were con- 
tinuous at first, and they were without a keel, having instead a 
strip of wood on either inside, to take the ground when stranding. 
Next was introduced the keel, in order to diminish the drift with 
a side-wind ; and to increase the strength a keelson was soon 
added, overlaying the floor-timbers and confining them to the 
keel; beams were also placed aloft to hold the sides together and 
sustain the deck. The planking was firmly attached to the frame- 
work by means of iron nails, some of which passed through and 
were clinched within. When, however, the ancients discovered the 
tendency of the iron to rot the wood, they substituted copper. To 
obviate the danger of starting the plank- ends — a danger still some- 
times fatal to the mariner — a piece of wood was let into both in the 
form of a dove-tail. Oak and pine then, as now, were the woods 
most in favor ; chestnut and cedar were also used ;* cypress, not 
being subject to shrink and cause leakage, was also esteemed, and 
elm-wood was placed in such parts as were constantly under water. 

A considerable time elapsed before the Greeks entered the ocean 
by the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and their 
oceanic navigation did not commence before the death of Alex- 
ander. After that period the Greeks, and especially the Athe- 
nians and Corinthians, made maritime excursions along the coasts 
of Spain and Africa, in the ocean and all the Mediterranean ports, 
Egypt, Phoenicia, and the Euxine Sea. 

* It will be seen hereafter in this book that Alexander used cedar and cypress 
in the vessels which he built at Babylon. 



380 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVI. 



It is pretended that the Phoenicians, in their solicitude to retain 
the vast monopoly of trade, to which they were indebted to their 
enterprise and industry, not only studiously concealed the course 
by which they arrived at remote countries with which they traded, 
but if followed by strange vessels would seek to mislead them, 
and even risk the loss of their own vessels to effect that of their 
pursuers. To complete the discouragement of their commercial 
rivals, they plundered and destroyed every foreign vessel and 
crew that they met with. The earliest instance of naval warfare 
recorded in history is that of Erythras, a prince, who made him- 
self master of the Red Sea and monopolized its commerce to the 
exclusion of the Egyptians, who were only allowed to navigate it 
with a single ship* 

It is a very remarkable fact that Cadmus, a Phoenician, who in- 
troduced the use of letters into Greece, came to that country at 
the same time that the armies of Joshua, the general of the Jews, 
pressed the Phoenician tribes to the sea and forced them to found 
colonies.f 

* Erythrceum Mare, Red Sea, was applied by the Greeks to the whole ocean 
extending from Arabia to India, as far as the island of Taprobane, now Ceylon. 
They derived the name from that of an ancient monarch, Erythras, who reigned 
along the coasts, and they believed that his grave was in one of the adjacent 
islands. Afterwards the name was applied merely to the sea below Arabia, and 
to the Arabian and Persian Gulfs. The appellation was probably derived from 
Edom (Esau), whose descendants were called Idumeans, and inhabited the 
northern part of Arabia. They navigated the Ked Sea and Persian Gulf, and 
also the Indian Ocean, and the name Idumean signifying red, the sea of the Idu- 
means was called the Ked Sea and Erythrean Sea, Arrian, who quotes Near- 
chus, admiral, and Ptolemy, general, in Alexander's army, says of the island 
Organa, situated within the Persian Gulf and near the Persian shore : "It pro- 
duces plenty of vines, palm-trees, and corn, and was full eight hundred stadia in 
length. In this island the sepulchre of the first monarch thereof is said still to 
remain, and that his name was Erythras, and from him the sea was called Mare 
Erythrceum." It is probable that the Ked or Erythrean Sea mentioned in the text 
was the Persian Gulf, and the monarch who defeated the Egyptians this Ery- 
thra ; and that the Egyptians and Babylonians had maritime communication 
and commercial relations at the time of Rameses, Sesostris, and it is not im- 
probable that the same relations existed at that time between Egypt and India 
and Babylon and India. It is not probable that the people of Babylon, 
then the greatest city of the world, dammed the Euphrates from fear of an in- 
vasion through that river ; besides every flood would have washed the dams 
away. It is probable that they leveed the banks of that river, and that these 
were the dams which historians have misrepresented. 

| Anthon says : " The myth of Cadmus is usually regarded as offering a con- 
vincing proof of the fact that the colonies from the East having come to Greece 
introduced civilization and the arts ; an examination, however, of the legend in 
this point of view will hardly warrant such an opinion. Cadmus is the name of 
Mercury in the mysteries of Samothrace, instituted by the Tyrrhenian Pelasgi, 



CHAP. XXXVI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



381 



The little we know of the Carthaginians comes to us through 
their implacahle enemies, the Romans. The Carthaginians, not 
contented with the trade of Egypt, Phoenicia, the Red Sea, Gaul, 
Spain, and Mauritania, and the narrow limits of the Mediterra- 
nean, stood boldly forth beyond the Pillars of Hercules, previously 
esteemed the ne plus ultra of the world, and carried their commer- 
cial enterprise to the western coasts of Europe and Africa, and 
even to the British Isles. 

" The Carthaginians interdicted the passage to the Canary 
Islands, which had then but just been discovered, fearing that 
their people would desert their native country and go thither. 
They kept their discoveries secret, and refused to share them with 
others, so that it is quite impossible to state how far they ex- 
tended. They ruled over Sicily, Malta, Goloden, the Balearic 
Isles, Sardinia, Corsica, and Spain. They navigated to the west 
of Africa as far as Cape Verd, and along Europe to the British 
Isles; perhaps their voyages extended even farther." — Muller. 

Ct Ancient mariners complained of the many shallows existing in 
some parts of the Atlantic Ocean, and this appears to have some 
geographical foundation, it being well known that Plato stated 
a very ancient tradition of the Egyptian priest of ' a country be- 
yond the Herculian pillars which sunk in one stormy night.' 
The existence of a very great continent, as large as the whole icorld (!) 
was not unknown to Aristotle. It is a curious fact that modern 
mariners have observed several shallows almost connected together 
from Spain over to the Azores to Newfoundland ; and it is proba- 
ble that the land which formerly joined the two worlds had sunk, 
which rendered the navigation very difficult until the overflowed 
soil had gradually deepened and consequently retired from the 
coast of Europe." — M.* f 

who at the time of the Dorian migration, being driven from Beotia, settled in 
the islands north of the Egean. The name of Cadmus occurs only at Thebes 
in Beotia, and Samothrace." See article " Pelasgi," Classical Die. 

* There are shallows now in the ocean, as there ever have been and ever will 
be. There is nothing very curious nor very strange about it ; but it is surprising 
that the pretty little story that Plato wrote, to give an idea of what he thought 
the best government, should be received and entertained for so long a time and 
by so many persons as an actual fact, a reality. The tradition of the Egyptian 
priest is probably a vague memory, recollection, of a continent in the Atlantic 
Ocean with which the ancient communication was lost and forgotten, and that 
continent America. 

t "The Ship— Its Origin and Progress," by Francis Steinitz, being a large 
work and history of vessels from the earliest times to the present century, with 
designs and descriptions of vessels. 



382 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVII. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Ancient Settlements — Idumeans — Omerites — Chuseens — Eastern and Western 
Sabians — Arabia Felix — Ophir — Sabea — Diodorus's Account of Sabea and 
Sabeans — Tartessus and Tartesse of Cilicia, and of Spain — The Voyages to 
Tarsus from Elath and Esion-Gaber, at the head of the Arabic Gulf. 

Esau, surnamed Edom, and Jacob, surnamed Israel, are the 
authors of two celebrated peoples — the Idumeans and the Israel- 
ites. Edom the Red, a term which many Greek historians have 
translated by Erythros, was the father of the Idumeans who ex- 
tended themselves in the valleys of Mount Seir and to the foot 
of Mount Pharan, to the south of the Dead Sea, and even to the 
Arabic Gulf. The Idumeans became a powerful nation distrib- 
uted into many tribes or provinces which had for a long time their 
own kings distinct from those of Israel. The name Edom or Ery- 
thros passed to the Arabic Gulf. The Scriptures always call it 
the Sea or the Gulf of Reeds ; but for more than two thousand years 
all the nations have given to it the name of Idumean Sea or Ery- 
thrion or Red Sea. Some historians have extended this name Red 
or Erythrion to all the seas which environ Arabia, which might 
cause some confusion in the reading of history if we were not 
aware of it. 

Among the numerous descendants of Edom was Omar, whose 
children, more known to ancient authors than many other eastern 
peoples, left the rocks and deserts of Arabia Petria and extended 
themselves along the Red Sea, where they addicted themselves to 
commerce. The most of this nation settled in Arabia Felix, be- 
tween the Sabians and the Hadramites, on one hand, and the Strait 
of Ocelis or Babelmandel, on the other. It is the passage from the 
Red Sea into the ocean. They had for their capital Marib or 
Mariaba, which still exists, with the same name, at the side of 
the country of incense and'of aromatics, which is still called Ha- 
dramut or Dwelling of Death. Many writers have confounded 
the Sabians with the Homerites, but they were only neighbors. 

The Omerites crossed the straits and made settlements in Africa, 
where, it is quite probable, they founded the colony of Abyssinia, 
which, without having ever been Mohammedan, still preserve cir- 
cumcision, not as a ceremony necessary to the religion which they 
profess, but as a mark of the nobility of their race descended from 
Abraham. 



CHAP. XXXVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



383 



Several branches of Israelites spread themselves in Egypt, where 
they early introduced circumcision. Other Ishmaelites penetrated 
into the heart of Africa, and communicated the same usage of cir- 
cumcision to the Negroes. 

The country of Chus, beyond the lower Tigris, to the cast of its 
mouth in the Gulf of Persia, is still called Chusistan. But branches 
of the Chuseens were scattered on both sides of the Persian Gulf. 
The name Chuseens, Cisnens, and Chuteans (all the same word 
pronounced differently) was given to the inhabitants of Chusistan 
to the east of the mouths of the Tigris. Of the Chuseens to the 
west of the Tigris some were sedentary, as Hevilah, Seba, Regma, 
and Dedan ; the others, Scenites, or dwellers under tents, roamed 
in the deserts of Arabia as far as Sur, or the Isthmus of Suez. 

Those along the western coast of the Persian Gulf became skil- 
ful navigators and merchants. They went to the ports of Tyre in 
Phoenicia by descending through the Strait of Ormus, which is the 
entrance and exit to this gulf. Then, in the ocean, turning round 
Arabia Felix, they entered the Arabic Gulf by the Strait of Ocelis, 
now Babelmandel, passing before the port of Mosa, which has also 
been named Musa and Mosca, and left their vessels in the port of 
Elath, at the head of the gulf, to finish their journey by land to 
Tyre. Others made this journey by land ; nothing was more com- 
mon to the Arabs than to travel in caravans through the most 
arid, sandy deserts. Ptolemy places a town of Regma, or Rigama, 
and, immediately afterwards, a people, whom he calls Asabians, 
near the strait. 

" The eastern Sabians, who often passed into Carmania, on the 
other side of the gulf, are very different from the western Sabians,* 
who are the true Sabians, settled with the Omerites, or descend- 
ants of Omer, at the extremity of the south of Arabia. Both of 
these Sabians enjoyed very nearly the same advantages. They 
had gold, aromatics, topaz, and other precious stones. It was from 
southern Sabia, which was the most famous, that the Queen of Saba 
came to visit Solomon. Ptolemy confirms the distinction of the 
two Sabias. He says : ' The Sabians are celebrated for the pos- 
session of incense, and they are distinct peoples, who inhabit (in 
Arabia) the borders of the two opposite seas (the Persian Gulf and 
the Arabic Gulf).' » 

Arabia is a very spacious peninsula, having, though unequally, 
six hundred leagues in length by nearly as many in breadth. It 
has to the east the Euphrates and the Gulf of Persia, to the south 

* "Eastern" and "Western" have reference to the location of the Sabians 
in Arabia, and not to the Persian Gulf. 



384 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVII. 



the Indian Ocean, and to the west the Red Sea. All this grand 
region is now divided into three parts — Arabia Petria, the Desert 
and Yemen. Petria, which is the smallest, has retained its name 
from its ancient capital, Petra, which signifies rock, and which is 
the meaning of its ancient and real name, Selaiu. 

Arabia Felix, which is the most southern of the three parts, and 
the nearest the ocean, takes its name from its gold, pearls, precious 
stones, and aromatics, which enrich its different provinces. The 
washings of the pellicles of gold, which the rains carry from the 
mines, have ceased through exhaustion. But the pearls which 
they obtained from the rock of the island of Baherin are still the 
commerce of the town Elcatif. The aromatics, as the incense, 
myrrh, and others, as well as the odoriferous or medicinal gums 
or resins, continue to exude from the trees which produce them, 
especially in the country of Hadramout which appears to have 
given its name to the aromatics which they go to seek there. 
Arabia Felix also bears the name of Yemen, or The Kingdom of 
the Right, because the ancient Arabs of the desert in their religious 
ceremonies and in their astronomical observations turning always 
towards the rising sun, had on their right Arabia Felix. 

The first settlement which Moses gives to the children of Jac- 
tan is from Mesa, along the route of the mountains of Saphar to 
the east of Mesa. Arrian indicates the same places. But either 
that the first letter of the word Saphar was but an aspiration, or 
that the pronunciation changed from one people to another, he 
gave to these chains of mountains Saphar, or Saphara, the name 
Aphar. Others have named them Ophir, or Sophir, and So- 
ph irah. 

The port of Mesa, which was on the coast of Arabia Felix, fifteen 
or twenty leagues below (north of) the entrance to the Red Sea, 
has always been much frequented in antiquity. Ptolemy knew it, 
and placed it, just as we have said, under the name of Musa. He 
places to the east of this port the Metropolis town, Saphar, in the 
midst of a country whose inhabitants he names Sapharites, and 
at the base of a chain of mountains to the east, which he names 
the stairs, or the descent, and which Moses calls Saphar. All these 
marks become so much the more certain, as at the side of these 
mountains is found the celebrated habitations of the Sabeans, 
the country of Hadramout, which still preserves its name, and 
that of Ophir. 

There were several colonies of the name Seba, or Saba, in dif- 
ferent parts of the Desert of Arabia and of Arabia Felix. But the 
most celebrated, the true Sabea, famous for its gold and for its in- 



CHAP. XXXVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



-385 



cense, is that which had Saba for its capital, towards the south 
or lower part of Yemen. First, it was from there that the Queen 
of Saba brought presents to Solomon; and moreover the Gospel, 
which calls her the Queen of the South, because of the situation 
of the Sabeans, also calls Sabea the extremities of th( earth, because 
it was the most remote towards the south, at the end of the greal 
continent, and that its coasts were bathed by the ocean beyond 
which they knew no more habitable countries. 

The same town of Saba, or Sabe, which is found in Ptolemy, 
has often been called Mareb, or Mariaba, which signifies the capi- 
tal. Some travellers have claimed that Saba was different from 
Mareb, which still exists, and that the latter was the capital of 
the Omerites, mingled with the Sabeans, and perhaps became 
masters of the country. This dispute interests us little, but it 
gives us occasion to remark that the colony of Saba has been dis- 
turbed by another family, or rather by a numerous nation. The 
Omerites, or Homerites, to whom Omar gave his name, attached 
themselves to commerce along the eastern shores of the Red Sea, 
and introduced themselves even into Sabea, where Ptolemy places 
them quite far into the country of the Sabeans. 

The country of Hadramout, which Ptolemy puts in his map of 
Arabia at the side of the mountains of Saphar, and which is still 
found to the south of these mountains, has rather given its name 
to one of the children of Jactan than received it from him, for 
this name signifies dwelling of death, or unhealthy air, which natu- 
rally rather becomes a country than a man. The reason of this 
denomination comes from the fact that this country, which is the 
most fertile in aromatics, nourishes many very dangerous ser- 
pents ; and especially because the air, charged with all these too 
active odors, is injurious to travellers, and fatal to those who re- 
main there too long; from whence it happens that hurtful animals 
multiply there with most freedom. It is the bad air that has 
caused to be given to many places the name of Hadramout. or 
Adrumet, and especially to the celebrated town which the Car- 
thaginians built upon their coast in Africa, opposite the southern 
coast of Sicily. These words, Hatfar mavet {atrium mortis) in 
Hebrew; Datramout, or Adramout, in Arabic; and Adrumet in 
Phoenician, all signify the same thing, although pronounced in 
three languages. 

The sources of this abundance of gold which distinguished the 
country of Saba was the particles of this metal which the great 
rains and the torrents carried down from the neighboring mines to 
the base of the mountain of Ophir. This name of Ophir appears no 

25 



386 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVII. 



other than that of Aphar and Saphar, which the mountains in the 
vicinity of Saba and Hadramout bare. The name of Ophir is 
found rendered in Josephus, and in other ancient interpreters, by 
those of Sophira or of Suphara. It appears by the discourse of 
Eliphas.* one of Job's friends, and an Arab, as he. that this gold 
of Ophir was not sought by digging deep into the earth, but that it 
was carried down by the torrents, and that they separated it from 
the gravel and the earth, with which it rolled in confusion. Per- 
haps the name Ophir. or Sophara and Sophala, was carried after- 
wards to a place on the eastern coast of Africa, where they stillt 
make a great collection of gold-dust. 

Diodorus Sicnlus. in his description of the Red Sea, thus speaks 
of the country " surnamed Aldei and Gasandi, which is a country 
not so hot as the others adjoining it. but is for the most part moist 
and soft by reason of the many thick clouds carried thither hy the 
winds. This land is naturally fertile, but lies altogether unculti- 
vated, through the negligence of the inhabitants. They draw gold 
also from the mines without the help of art, howbeit not such gold 
as must be melted in the fire to bring it forth, but gold that is by 
nature pure. It is found in little small pieces, so that the dust is 
like a spark of lire, and the greatest as big as a nut. This gold 
they wear on their ringers and about their necks, with precious 
stones betwixt. Now, because they have abundance of it. and. 
contrarily, are in want of brass or iron, they exchange the one for 
the other with merchants." 

" The next Arabians are named Carbes, and adjoining to them 
are the Sabeans, the most populous nation of all that inhabit 
Arabia the happy, and replenished with all things which we 
esteem to be most precious, as also with great store of all manner 
of cattle. In sweet odors, which are naturally produced in their 
country, they surpass all other regions of the world, for balsamum 
grows in the maritime parts thereof, and cassia likewise ; so also 
another herb of a singular virtue, which, newly-gathered, refreshes 
the sight of those who look upon it. but kept awhile it loses its 
force. In the Mediterranean parts thereof are many goodly 
forests, full of trees bearing frankincense imd myrrh : therein 
grow also palm-trees, canes,T cinnamon, and other such like odor- 
iferous things whereof it is not possible to recount all the several 

* Job xxii., 24. 

t Pinch was born in the year 1688, died 17H1 ; so this traffic in gold-dust, on 
the eastern coast of Africa, was carried on between these dates. 

% Mere canes would hardly be worth mentioning. May it not have been sugar 
canes ? 



CHAP. XXXVII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



387 



sorts in particular, so abundantly hath nature assembled them 
there together, so that the odors which come to our senses from 
those trees seem to be somewhat that is truly divine, and which 
cannot well be expressed ; and certainly such as sail in such seas 
(though they be far from the continent) partake in the pleasure 
of these sweet smells, for the winds, which in the springtime blow 
from the land, transport such odors to the maritime parts there- 
abouts ; for the virtue of these aromatics is not weak and faint, as 
it is here with us, but so strong and fresh as it pierces through our 
senses; for that the wind, in such sort mingled with delicate savors 
blowing upon the sea, affects the spirits of passengers with a mar- 
vellous sweetness, and greatly avails unto health. Howbeit nature 
hath not given to these Sabians so pure and simple a felicity 
without some displeasure, but hath mingled a great deal of misery 
with so much bliss, for in all such their odoriferous forests there 
is a number of red serpents a span long which bite and hurt men 
mortally." 

u The metropolitan city of this nation is called Saba, and is 
situated on a high mountain where their kings come to the crown 
by succession of lineage. These are held to be the richest people, 
not only of Arabia, but of all the world. By reason of their trad- 
ing they exchange a thing of little weight with the merchant for 
a great sum of money, and so for this cause, as also for that they 
have never suffered any bad fortune or calamity, and, besides, 
have great abundance of gold and silver, especially in the city of 
Saba (where the king is always resident), all their vessels whatso- 
ever are of gold and silver, the most of them curiously engraved ; 
nay their beds, tables, and stools, have their feet of silver, and all 
the rest of their household stuff is so magnificent and costly that 
it can hardly be credited. The entrance into their houses are 
adorned with great pillars, whereof the chapters are either of gold 
. or silver. Amongst other things their floors, ceilings, and portals 
of their chambers are enriched with plates of gold and precious 
stones to show the marvellous sumptuousness of their houses, for 
everything in them shines either with gold, silver, or precious 
stones. Some of them are garnished with ivory and many other 
things of great value and esteem. Verily the Sabeans have always 
lived in perpetual felicity, f or they have never gone about to usurp 
other men's estates out of ambition and avarice, which hath been 
the cause of many people's ruin. Not far from hence arc the 
happy islands where towns are without walls, and their sheep are 
all white, whereof the ewes are naturally without horns. To these 
islands do merchants resort from all parts of the world, but most of 



388 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVII. 



all to the city of Potana, which Alexander built at the mouth of the river 
Indus:' 

Javan, Jaon, Jon are different pronunciations of the name 
which this son of Japheth bore, who was the father of Tarshish, 
Elishah, Kittim, and Dodanim,* authors of as many celebrated 
colonies. Their first sojourn was Asia Minor. Tarshish did not 
quit it; he stopped between the Taurus, the Amanus, and the Medi- 
terranean Sea. He built there the town Tartessus, or Tarsis, the 
capital of Cilicia. The river Cydmus, upon which it was situated, 
and the sea, which was not far from it, made Tarsus commercial. 
It traded particularly with the Cypriots, whom it had before it, 
with the Syrians and the Phoenicians which it had near on the 
left of the river. 

It had afterward an offshoot of the same name, a new Tartesse 
or Tarsis built hy the merchants of Cilicia and of Phoenicia, at the 
extremity of Andalousia, in Spain, towards the little island of 
Cadiz, and the strait of the same name, now the Strait of Gibral- 
tar. The Phoenicians had nothing more at heart than the com- 
merce of the river Beatis, in Spain, which is now called Guadal- 
quiver. They found there a good business in gold, silver, tin, 
fine woods, and good wines. They had near the mouth of the 
river, where was Tartesse, an island of refuge where they put all 
their merchandises of Asia and Spain in security. It is what 
caused them to give to the island the name of Gadar, enclosure, re- 
treat, a name which was altered and changed to that of Gades. 
The Cilicians gave to a neighboring town the name of their capi- 
tal, but history shows us the Phoenicians there always as masters, 
and as the principal merchants. This new Tarsis effaced the other 
and became the source of the riches of Sidon. When they would 
speak in Syria of constructing or equipping a great sea-vessel, a 
vessel of long course, they said Equip the ships of Tarsus. They 
went, in fact, to new Tarsis by the entire passage of the Mediter- 
ranean. They went there, also, by leaving the ports which the 
Phoenicians had on the Red Sea, and in navigating round Africa, 
then in returning by the Mediterranean, or in repassing again 
along the coasts of Africa and re-entering into the ports of Elath 
or Esion-Gaber, at the head of the Arabic Gulf. They trafficked 
advantageously with the savages of these coasts in carrying to them 
in the first route the merchandises of Asia, and in the return the 
merchandises of Spain. The last voyage of Tarsis was celebrated, 
and of three years' duration. 

The Phoenicians for this reason gave to the Beatic the name of 

* Genesis x., 4. 



CHAP. XXXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



389 



Hesperides, which in their language signifies the great part, the 
excellent lot. It was for this enterprise that there were strong ves- 
sels and great preparations. It was therefore not surprising thai 
the great fleets bore the name of a place very distant; which did 
not become Tarsis of Cilicia, which was but a very short distance 
from Sidon and from the coast of Syria. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Ancient Voyages — Canaanites, or Sidonians — Voyages from Elath and Esion- 
Gaber to Tarsis — Josephus on Solomon and Hiram — Phoenician Colonies — 
Diodorus's Description of Iberia — Diodorus on the Country of Elath and 
Esion-Gaber, and the Sinus iElanitticus — The Phoenicians and Carthagin- 
ians — Nechos — His Canal — Phoenicians Sail from the Ked Sea around Africa 
to Egypt — Commerce between Egypt and India — The Voyage of Scylax from 
India to Egypt. 

The children of Canaan have, apparently, like the other families 
issued from Ham, wandered a long time in the deserts of Arabia 
before settling, as they did, on the borders of the Mediterranean, 
which they called the Great Sea, in apposition to the Reedy Sea, 
or Arabic Gulf, which did not then bear the name of Red Sea. 

The descendants of Sidon have always remembered having dwelt 
on the borders of the Red Sea before their entry into Phoenicia. 
What is certain is that some of these Canaanites, or Sidonians, 
have always lived upon the northern borders of the Red Sea ; and 
that even in the times when the Idumeans and afterwards the 
kings of Judea owned the ports of Elath and Esion-Gaber the 
Sidonians always had intercourse with them, maintained sailors 
and vessels there, rendered themselves useful to all their neigh- 
bors by the voyages which they made, not only along the Arabic 
Gulf, but even beyond the Straits of Babelmandel and along the 
coasts of the ocean.* 

In the times of Solomon the cities of Atsioum-Gaber (Esion- 
Gaber) and Ailath (Elath) were highly-frequented marts. The 
Idumeans, from whom the Jews only took their ports at intervals, 
must have found in them a great source of wealth and popula- 
tion. It even appears that they rivalled the Tyrians, who also 
possessed a town, the name of which is unknown, on the coast 
of Hedjaz, and the city of Faran, and, doubtless, El-Tor, which 



* Pluch. 



390 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVIII. 



served it by way of a port. Atsioum-Gaber and Ailath that, in 
the time of Solomon and Hiram, were the busy marts of com- 
merce, have now no shipping and carry on no kind of commerce.* 
Thus showing how places now desert and gloomy with the silence 
of-solitude may once have been populous and prosperous. 

The Phoenicians were not satisfied with the profits they could 
make along the coasts of the Mediterranean ; they also made voy- 
ages to Beatica or the south of Spain by passing through the Red 
Sea and the ocean. They thus went round all Africa and re- 
entered, either by the Mediterranean into these ports of Tyre and 
Sidon or by repassing around Africa, into those of Elath and Esion- 
Gaber. This last route was for them the most advantageous. The 
gain of this course, which was of three years, appeared so brilliant 
that Solomon and some of his successors, having no marine upon 
the Mediterranean, established one in the ports of the Red Sea. 
The Jews, aided by the Phoenicians and sometimes joining their 
fleet to that which the kings of Tyre had upon the Red Sea, learned 
the route to Ophir, and afterwards, passing beyond, doubled the 
southern cape which we call Good Hope, and followed the coast 
to the Strait of Cadiz. If they did not return by the Mediterra- 
nean, it was not because they had not good ports upon their 
coasts ; it was, above all, because they made immense profits in 
exchanging with the foreigners the merchandise of the East on 
their first passage, and afterwards in exchanging, on their return 
along the same coasts, the merchandise of Beatica. 

The voyage to Ophir depended often upon that of Tarsis, but 
the one was not the other. Sometimes they went to seek the gold 
of the New Ophir, which was upon the eastern coast of Africa, 
and this voyage was quite short. Sometimes they made the tour 
of the whole continent, going to Cadiz and to Tarsis, which were 
at the entrance of Spain, and returning from thence by the same 
route, in making again the circuit of Africa, in order to double 
their profits, and to re-enter their port of Esion-Gaber. This was 
the long voyage, which was of three years' duration.f 

The civil wars which occurred under Rehoboam interrupted the 
maritime voyages which Solomon had undertaken. The efforts 
of Jehoshaphat and of Ozias, who wished to resume them, were 
not fortunate. Repeated storms in the Red Sea ruined their fleets 
even in their ports, and after this event the Jews mingled no more 
in foreign commerce. 

* Volney's "Syria." 

f 2 Chronicles, viii., 17-18 ; 1 Kings, ix., 25, 26, 27, 28 ; x., 21, 22, 27 ; 
Ezekiel, xxvii., 12, 22, 25. 



CHAP. XXXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



391 



This famous Tarsis of Andalusia is now no more. The princi- 
pal causes which attracted there the merchandise of Asia no 
longer exist, but there is nothing better attested in history than 
this commerce.* 

Josephus sa}'S : — " Moreover the king (Solomon) built many 
ships in the Egyptian Bay of the Red Sea, in a certain place called 
Esion-Gaber; it is now called Berenice, and is not far from the 
city of Elath. This country belonged formerly to the Jews, and 
became useful for shipping, from the donations of Hiram, king 
of Tyre, for he sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, 
and such as were skilled in navigation, to whom Solomon gave 
this command: That they should go along with his own stewards 
to the land that of old was called Ophir, but now the Aurea Cher- 
sonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch him gold ; and, when 
they had gathered four hundred talents together, they returned to 
the king again. 

About the same time (the visit of Sheba) there was brought 
to the king from the Aurea Chersonesus, a country so called, pre- 
cious stones and pine trees, and these trees he made use of for 
supporting the temple and the palace. 

Now the weight of gold that was brought home was six hundred 
and sixty-six talents, not including the sums which were brought 
him by the merchants, nor what the toparchs and kings of Arabia 
gave him in presents, and he contrived that all his furniture of 
vessels should be of gold, for there was nothing then to be bought 
or sold for silver; for the king had many ships that lay upon the 
sea of Tarsus. These he commanded to cany out all sorts of 
merchandize unto the remotest nations, by the sale of which gold 
and silver were brought to the king, and a great quantity of ivory, 
and Ethiopians and apes, and they finished their voyage, going 
and returning, in three years 1 time."f 

Strabo places this ancient Tartesse at the mouth of the Beatis, 
now Guaclalquiver. Stephen of Byzantium, as Strabo, placed it 
at the mouth of a river, which he calls by the same name, in a 
country which he calls Tartesside, which they also named Beatica, 
and afterwards Andalusia. The silver, tin and other merchandise 
which for so long a time attracted the Asiatics, is often found cited 
conjointly with the names of Tartesse and Tarsicum in Polybius 
and in Pliny, in the Latin historians and in the poets, who make 
brilliant descriptions of it. Homer placed there the Elysian 
Fields. After the Carthaginians the Romans finished with glean- 
ing the ruins of Tarsis. There remains nothing there but ex- 

* Pluch. f Josephus. 



392 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVIII. 



hausted caverns, and sometimes earthen lamps, with some imple- 
ments of the miners. 

We can add to the Phoenician colonies those of the Carthagin- 
ians who went from Tyre. They possessed much of Sicily, where 
they had Lelibeum and the neighboring towns, the little island 
of Malta, all Sardinia, the Isle of Corsica, all of which have pre- 
served their ancient Phoenician names, and the Balearic Isles, 
which are now Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica. They derive their 
names from two Phoenician and Hebrew words, which signify mas- 
ters in the use of the bow, and in fact the Greek and Latin writers 
have related prodigies of their dexterity with the bow.* 

Diodorus mentions the island of Pityusa, so called from its pine 
trees. It is distant from the Herculese Pillars three days' sailing ; 
from Africa a day and a night ; from Iberia one day. It hath a 
city called Enesus, a colony of the Carthaginians, and is inhab- 
ited by Phoenicians. This colony was brought thither a hundred 
and sixty years after the building of Carthage. 

There are also other islands opposite to Spain, by the inhabi- 
tants and the Romans called Balearic, from the casting of a sling 
wherewith the inhabitants sling stones more directly than other 
people. Their weapons are three slings ; one they wrap about the 
heads, the other about the middles, and the third they hold in their 
hands. In battle they sling far greater stones than others do, with 
that force that one would believe they were shot out of some en- 
gine. At the assault of cities none can peep out of their works 
from the walls but they wound them with their stones, and in 
fight they dash to pieces shields, head-pieces, and all kinds of 
armor. They dart their stones so directly that they do scarcely 
ever miss the mark. 

The following from Diodorus confirms what has been said of 
the mineral wealth of Spain in ancient times : 

" The mountains of Iberia (which were called the Pyrenian) di- 
vide Gallia from Iberia, and extend themselves through Celtiberia 
three thousand furlongs. Having many woods in them, it is said 
that certain shepherds cast fire into them, and by that means all 
those hill-countries were burned, whence they affirm that these 
mountains were called Pyrenai. The fire lasting many days, sev- 
eral streams of silver came flowing down from the mountains by 
the force of the flames. The inhabitants not knowing what it was, 
the merchants of Phoenicia (giving in exchange for it some trifling 
things) carried it into Greece and Asia and other countries, 
where they became very rich, for they were so greedy of it that 

* Pluch. 



CHAP. XXXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



when they had loaded their ships therewith tliey took the lead 
from off their anchors and put in the silver, which remained in 
the place thereof. 

The Phoenicians being enriched by this market, they distributed 
several colonies into Sicilia and the neighboring islands, and into 
Lybia, Sardinia, and Iberia. 

The Iberians (at last coming to know what silver was) gave 
themselves to the getting of metals, and having gotten abundance 
of excellent silver they made great advantage of it. Whereas 
gold, silver and brass are the principal metals, they who are em- 
ployed in getting of brass have for themselves a fourth part of 
what they dig ; they who dig the silver receive for three days an 
Euboic talent, for all the land is stuffed with silver, so that it is a 
wonder to see both the nature of the country and the continual 
labor of the workmen, for those who most busied themselves in 
getting of metals became very rich, for the silver is easy to come 
by, the country affords such plenty of it. 

Although there be many things in finding out this art of metals 
worthy of our wonder, yet let us not marvel why none are of later 
invention, but were all of them found out by the Carthaginians 
when they inhabited Iberia; hence it was that they afterwards be- 
came so powerful, for with their silver they hired the best soldiers 
and managed several wars against their enemies. They brought 
the Romans, the Sicilians, and the Lybians into great straights, 
although they made use neither of their own countrymen nor of 
their confederates to fight for them, for they were richer than all 
of them, by reason of their abundance of gold and silver. 

Afterward, when the Romans had conquered the Iberians, they 
undertook for their gain to work the mines, and were much en- 
riched thereby, for they set abundance of purchased slaves to 
work in the mines, who, searching up and down for the veins of 
the metals, dug out plenty of gold and silver, undermining the 
ground for several furlongs. 

In Spain they that dig metals meet with more than they expect, 
for by reason of the happiness of the soil they find clots full of 
gold and silver, for all the grounds abound with them. They 
sometimes meet with rivers running under ground whose course 
(in hopes of gain) with great labor they cut off, and, which is 
more strange, they turn them another way by those which they 
call Egyptian pumps, invented by Archimedes when he went into 
Egypt. By these kind of instruments (with a great deal of art 
and diligence) do they drain the mines whence the metals are 
digged, casting the water upwards. 



394 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVIII. 



The slaves who are employed about these metals bring to their 
masters an incredible gain ; many of them laboring night and 
day take so much pains that they kill themselves, for they allow 
them no rest or intermission in their labor, but force them by 
stripes to labor continually, whence it happens that the}*- seldom 
live long ; yet some of them that are of strong bodies and vigorous 
spirits do continue a great while in that calamity, who, notwith- 
standing (such is the miserable condition of their being) do rather 
wish for death than life. 

There is, likewise, tin growing in several places of Iberia, not 
found casually, as some writers have affirmed, but digged out there 
and forged as silver and gold, for above Lusitania they dig out 
tin in the islands next adjacent to the Iberian Ocean, which from 
tin are called Cassiterides, yet most of it is brought out of Britan- 
nic into that part of France which lies opposite to that island. 
Thence the Celtic merchants carried it with horses by land through 
Marsellias to the city of Narbona, a colony of the Romans, the 
best mart in all these parts either for convenience or for benefit of 
those who come to it."* 

Diodorus, in his description of the Red Sea and the countries 
bordering upon it, describes the harbors of Elath and Esion-Gaber. 
He says : " From the city of Arsinoe, in sailing along by the con- 
tinent on the right hand, there is seen in the plain country a green 
mountain reasonably high, and at the foot of the mountain is a 
lake hard to pass over. Near thereunto is a great gulf named 
Acathartus, wherein there is a peninsula~\ of a narrow passage, 
which points out to sailors the way to the other coast of Arabia. 

Beyond the said strait there is an island called Opiades, five 
leagues in length. The next shore to the said island is for . the 
most part inhabited by Ichtheophages and by the Troglodite 
shepherds, from whence forward are nothing but mountains even 
to the port of Sotera. From the port of Sotera they cross into 
Arabia by a sea and region far different from the other coast 
whereof we have spoken ; for that country is low and plain, with- 
out any mountains, nor is the sea there above two fathoms and a 
half deep, and is in color marvellously green, because the bottom 
of it is all covered over with sea-grass. That place is very proper 
and commodious for the navigation of small vessels, being subject 
to no tempests ; but great ships, wherein elephants are carried, as 

* From an English version of Diodorus, byH. C. Gent, 1653. 

f Peninsula probably should be strait. This strait appears to have been a 
channel, between an island and the main shore, which led from one branch of the 
Ked Sea to the other. 



CHAP. XXXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



:;(t:> 



well for that they draw much water of themselves as because they 
are deeply laden, are in great danger ; for they are oftentimes 
tossed by the winds and driven against great rocks, or carried 
into that shallow sea. The country is altogether desert and un- 
inhabited. Besides all these difficulties and perils, the flowing 
of the waves of the sea brings in a short time so much sand to 
the ships as it is environed as with a ram pi re. 

In this region there are many rivers descending from the mount- 
ains called Prebie, and many spacious plains abounding with palm- 
trees of a marvellous height. The sea whereunto you afterwards 
descend is very deep, in which there are whales of an immeasur- 
able greatness. 

These uttermost parts of the Troglodites are environed with 
mountains named Psevara; all the rest of the coast on the 
other side towards Arabia from the Altars which Ariston, a gen- 
tleman sent by Ptolemy to discover as far as the ocean, caused to 
be set up there in honor of Neptune, is called Neptunium. And 
all the length of this, so renowned Maritime Region, is named Phe- 
nicia, from the great abundance of Palm Trees growing there, 
which produce most excellent fruits. 

The neighboring country lying directly to the south is full of 
fountains. There are so many springs and streams of w T ater that 
the earth is thereby always clothed with fresh green grass. There 
is, moreover, a temple there, anciently built of hard stone, wdiereon 
are antique letters inscribed, which one cannot read nor understand. 
In this temple is a man and a woman, who all their lifetime have 
charge of the sacred things that are there. In sailing from this 
country of Phenicia straight forth to the continent there is an 
island named the Island of Wild Beasts, whereon there is such 
an excessive number of them as is strange and marvellous. The 
Promontory which is seen from this island reaches to the place 
called Petra, and joins to the countries of Arabia and Palestine. 
To this island, do they say, the Gerrhei* and the Menei bring in- 
cense and other odoriferous gums from the higher Arabia. The 
rest of all this shore was possessed first by the Maranei and after- 
wards by their neighbors, the Garyndai, who usurped the same. 
That done, they divided among themselves their (the Maranei) 
country, which was now void of husbandmen to till and sow the 
ground, and of all that were to keep and look to the cattle. There 
are few ports in this region, but it is divided by several mountains. 

Parting from hence, they sail through the Gulf of Elan ita. which 
is full of villages and habitations of the Arabians, surnamed Xa- 
* On the Persian Gulf. 



396 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVIII. 



bathei. who possess a great part of the shore, and some lands within 
the continent, where are great store of men and cattle. These 
Nabathei lived in times past well and justly, being contented with 
the sustenance which their cattle furnished them abundantly, but 
afterwards, when they turned pirates, and robbed the merchants 
of Alexandria sailing that way, with no less inhumanity than those 
of the Mare Major named Tauryens used to do. they were at last 
defeated and taken by certain galleys, suffering deserved punish- 
ment for their misdeeds.* 

Next unto the former is a champaign and moist country, where, 
by reason of the abundance of springs that are in it. Lotar* grow? 
to the height of a man ; and the fertility of it is such as it abounds, 
not only with an infinite number of sheep and cattle, but also with 
herds of wild camels and of red and fallow deer. 

Adjoining hereunto is a large arm of the sea, two-and-thirty 
leagues broad, or thereabout, which is naturally shut and closed 
up with many great rocks, and therefore hard to pass, for there is 
a mighty huge rock, reaching far into the sea, which keeps ships 
from coming in or going out, so that none pass into it but such as 
in storms are carried, at full sea, by the force of the winds and 
waves, over that rock. The people which inhabit this coast are 
called Banizomines, and have no other way of living but by 
hunting : yet is the most holy temple, which all the Arabians 
celebrate with much superstition, in their country. 

Not far from the Banizomines are three islands, which have 
many ports. In the first of them, that is altogether solitary and 
desolate, are old foundations of a house made of stone, and with 
pillars, whereon are engraven strange and barbojrous letters, which 
they say were set there in honor of Isis. The other two are likewise 
uninhabited, but fruitful of olives, somewhat different from ours. 

Beyond these islands the sea is full of broken rocks for the space 
of thirty -two leagues, and there is not in it any haven, port or other 
place where one may cast anchor, so that, any tempest coming, 
the seamen must of necessity suffer shipwreck. There is hanging 
over this sea a high, precipitous mountain, at the foot of which 
are divers hollow caves, whereinto the waves of the sea entering 
upon a storm yield a sound as dreadful as thunder. The Ara- 
bians who dwell on this shore are named Thomudei. 

* "The NTabatheans are, in histories and geographies, placed in the vicinity 
of the ports of Elana, or Elat, and Esion-Gaber, at the northern extremity 
of the Gulf of Arabia, sometimes to the east of Palestine, sometimes to the south. 
Their life, commonly, was not sedentary : the most of them camped or traded, 
and changed their dwelling/' — Pluck. 



CHAP. XXXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



Next to this perilous sea is a great gulf full of Little islands, 
and all along the shore are huge heaps of black sand dispersed 
here and there. A little lower down is a peninsula where is ont 
of the best ports that is written of in any history, called Charmulta, 
for under a rock which lies directly to the west the sea surpasses 
all others for goodness and profit. Over it is a very goodly moun- 
tain containing above six leagues. The entrance into the said 
port is fourscore fathoms broad, where two thousand ships may 
ride. Moreover, there runs into it a great river, and in the midst 
of it is an island full of good water and apt for gardening. To 
conclude, it is like the port of Carthage, called Cothonum. it is 
withal replenished with all kinds of fish, which resort thither 
from the main sea for food. The sailors know it by five high moun- 
tains, which are discerned afar off, separated one from another, and 
pointed like the pyramids of Egypt. 

The arm of the sea is from thenceforward round, and environed 
with great promontories, in the midst whereof a little long hill rises 
up, in the form of a table, upon the which are three marvellous 
temples consecrated to the honor of certain Gods unknown to the 
Greeks, however very much reverenced by the inhabitants." 

Such is probably a description of iElanitticus Sinus, the eastern 
branch of the Red Sea, in which branch were Esion-Gaber and 
Elath, the ancient ports of the Phoenicians. The temples here 
erected to gods unknown to the Greeks were probably Hebrew 
temples, for the Greeks were not ignorant of the Phoenician 
gods. 

Different circumstances often determined the Phoenicians to 
establish elsewhere new colonies, several of which have become 
very celebrated. Sometimes their frequent returns to the places 
where they transacted the most business disposed the natives of 
the province to permit the Phoenicians to settle there among them, 
preserving separately their language and their laws. Everywhere 
they carried with them abundance, and provided the country with 
everything. It was thus that they founded the famous Carthage 
in Africa, opposite Sicily. Sometimes the smallness of their ter- 
ritory obliged them to send abroad their too numerous progeny, 
who obtained willingly or by force a favorable location, and formed 
there new settlements at the side of the preceding. It is what oc- 
curred in the progress of all those bands that built Adrumet, 
Clypse, Utica, and so many towns in the environs of Carthage. 
These Carthaginians carried everywhere economy, the love of 
labor, and the spirit of traffic. They ceased not to be prosperous 
until they became more military than commercial. At other 



398 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVIII. 



times, pressed on land by the attacks of a powerful enemy, these 
Canaanites boarded their vessels, abandoned their country, and 
went to seek fortune elsewhere, as happened to the Canaanites 
driven away by Joshua, and particularly to the inhabitants of 
Tyre, when they saw themselves unable to hold out against Neb- 
uchadnezzar and against Alexander. 

We are entirely certain that they were Canaanites who have 
peopled the coasts of Little Africa, or of Africa proper, opposite 
Sicily, and a good part of Sicily itself. On all the coast of Car- 
thage, on that of Mauritania as far as the Strait of Cadiz, they 
generally speak the Punic or Tyrennian language, which resem- 
bles in nearly every respect that of the Hebrew.* 

The Egyptians possessed a navy six hundred and ninety-one 
years before the Christian era, and such was its commerce at that 
time that Necho, son of Psammiticus, commenced a canal to con- 
nect the River Nile with the Red Sea. The water entered it from 
the Nile a little above the city of Bubastis ; it terminated in the 
Red Sea not far from Patumos, an Arabian town. They began to 
sink the canal in that part of Egypt which is nearest to Arabia. Con- 
tiguous to it is a mountain which stretches towards Memphis, and con- 
tains quarries of stone. Commencing at the foot of this, it extends from 
ivest to east through a considerable tract of country, and, ivhere a mount- 
ain opens to the south, is discharged into the Arabian Gulf From the 
northern (Mediterranean) to the southern, or, as it is generally 
called, the Red Sea, the shortest passage is over Mount Casius, which 
divides Egypt from Syria, from whence to the Arabian Gulf is a 
thousand stadia. The way by the canal, on account of the different 
circumflexions, is considerably longer. The length of this canal is 
equal to a four days' voyage, and it is wide enough to admit two tri- 
remes abreast. In the prosecution of this work under Nechos no less 
than one hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians perished. He 
at length desisted from the undertaking, being admonished by an 
oracle that all his labor would be turned to the advantage of a 
barbarian ; and it is to be observed that the Egyptians term all 
barbarians who speak a language different from their own. 

As soon as Nechos discontinued his labors with respect to the 
canal, he turned all his thoughts to military enterprises. He built 
vessels both on the Northern Ocean (Mediterranean) and in that 
part of the Arabian Gulf which was near the Red Sea. Vestiges 
of his naval undertakings are still to be seen (says Herodotus). 
His fleets were occasionally employed, but he also by land con- 



* The Abbe Pluch. 



CHAP. XXXVIII.] 



OF AMERICA. 



399 



quered the Syrians.* After a reign of seventeen years Nechos 
died, leaving the kingdom to his son Psammis. 

When the vastness of this undertaking is considered, the in- 
ference is that the commerce of Egypt at that date must have 
been very important on the Red Sea, and what follows appears a 
sufficient evidence of it. " Nechos was the first person who proved 
that the whole of Lybia (Africa), except in that particular part 
which is contiguous to Asia, was surrounded by the sea; for, when 
he had desisted from his attempt to join by a canal the Nile with 
the Arabian Gulf, he dispatched some vessels under the conduct 
of Phoenicians with directions to pass by the Columns of Hercules, 
and, after penetrating the Northern Ocean, to return to Egypt. f 
These Phoenicians, taking their course from the Red Sea, entered 
into the Southern Ocean : on the approach of autumn they landed 
in Lybia, and planted some corn in the place where they happened 
to find themselves ; when this was ripe and they had cut it down, 
they again departed. Having thus consumed two years, they, in 
the third, doubled the Columns of Hercules and returned to Eg\'pt. 
Their relation may obtain attention from others, but to me it seems 
incredible ; for they affirm that, having sailed round Lybia, they 
had the sun on their right hand. "J 

This great canal, conceived and begun by Nechos, was afterwards 
continued by Darius Hystaspes, and finally finished by Ptolemy 
Philadelphia. The size of the canal indicates the size of the ves- 
sels that were to pass through it, and shows that even at the time 
of Nechos triremes navigated the Red Sea ; and it is probable that, 
even at that day, navigators were acquainted with the monsoon, 
and that their vessels were wafted by them from the shores of 
Arabia, through the Erythrian Sea, to those of India. It is more 
probable that the Arabians or the Indians first discovered these 
winds, which blew on their shores, than that a Greek or Roman, 

* It was Josias, king of Judah. 

t It appears, from what follows, that the Phoenicians reversed the order of 
things, and started from the Red Sea. 

X Thus was the southern extremity of Africa doubled about twenty-one hun- 
dred years before De Gama accomplished the same feat in 1497. It is worthy 
of notice that the time employed in this voyage was the same as that of the voy- 
ages in the time of Solomon and Hiram. As Herodotus says, Nechos was the 
first to prove that Lybia, or Africa, was surrounded by the sea, excepting the 
Isthmus of Suez. He must have been ignorant of the previous voyages of the 
Phoenicians around it. These voyages of the Phoenicians in the time of Solo- 
mon appeared to have required three years, "ingoing and reforming" — probably 
should be three years in going and in returning, which would make the voyage 
from Elath to Tarsis of the same duration as that of Nechos's voyage. 



400 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXVIII. 



living on the borders of the Mediterranean, had discovered them. 
About the year 509 b. c. Darius, son of Hystaspes,* being desirous 
of enlarging his dominion eastward, in order to the conquering of 
those countries, had a design of first making a discovery of them ; 
for which purpose, having built a fleet of ships at Caspatyrus, a 
city of the river Indus, and as far up upon it as the borders of 
Scythia, he gave the command of it to Scylax, a Grecian of Cary- 
andia, a city of Caria, and well skilled in maritime affairs, and 
sent him down the river to make the best discoveries he could of 
all the parts that lay on its banks on either side, ordering him 
for this end to sail down the current until he should arrive at the 
mouth of the river; and that then, passing through its mouth into 
the Southern Ocean, he should shape his course westward, and that 
way return home ; which orders he having exactly executed, he 
returned by the Strait of Babelmandel and the Red Sea, and on the 
thirtieth month after his first setting out from Caspatyrus landed 
in Egypt at the same place from whence Nechos, king of Egypt, 
formerly sent out the Phoenicians to sail round the coasts of Africa, 
which, it is most likely, was the port where now the town of Suez 
stands, at the hither end of the Red Sea. And from thence he went 
to Susa, and there gave Darius an account of all the discoveries 
which he had made. After this, Darius entered India with an 
army, brought all that large country under him,f " and became 
master of that ocean." 

"It is stated that after the foundation of Alexandria the Indian 
trade was almost entirely carried on by the merchants of that city. 
Few ships, however, appear to have sailed from Alexandria till 
the discovery of the monsoons by Hippalus, and the Arabians 
supplied Alexandria, as they had previously done the Phoenicians, 
with the products of India.'' It is more than probable that Scy- 
lax, during the reign of Darius, made his voyage from the mouth 
of the Indus to Egypt by means of the monsoon. Nearchus, 
during the reign of Alexander, made his vo\^age from the mouth 
of the Indus to that of the Euphrates by the monsoon, and the 
Arabians here spoken of either shipped their Indian products 
from the ports of that country or were supplied with them by In- 
dian vessels from those ports. It thus appears that before Hip- 
palus navigators used the monsoons of the Erythrean Sea. Dio- 
dorus says vessels from all parts of the world resorted most of all 
to Potana, built by Alexander, at the mouth of the Indus. 

* Ascended the throne 521 b. c. 
f Prideaux, " Herodotus. " 



CHAP. XXXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



401 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Alexander Prepares to Leave India — The Voyage of Neardius from f h»- In<lu- 
to the Euphrates — The Ichthyophagi — Whales — The Coast of Susa — Alex- 
ander Sails up the Tigris — Alexander at Babylon— His Great Naval Prepa- 
rations and Grand Scheme, Expeditions and Colonies — Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus — The India Voyage and Trade. 

At the time of Alexander's reign (336 to 324 b. c.) the inhabi- 
tants of the borders of the Indus were a seafaring people and 
built triremes, and even from remotest historical times the Indians 
were a seafaring people, and had early commercial maritime re- 
lations with the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago. 

When Alexander had made ready on the banks of the Hydaspes 
many biremes and triremes, with several vessels for carrying 
horses, and all other things necessary for conveying his army, he 
resolved to sail down the river till he came into the ocean. The 
number of triremes which composed a part of his navy was, ac- 
cording to Ptolemy,* about eighty, but the whole number of ves- 
sels, those employed for horses and others built then as well as 
before, amounted to nearly two thousand. The rowers and pilots 
of his vessels were carefully chosen out from among the Phoeni- 
cians, Cyprians, Carians and Egyptians who followed his army 
and were fit for that purpose. Nearchus was appointed admiral 
over the whole navy, and Onesicritus captain of the single ship 
where the king was. When the fleet arrived at the confluence of 
the Acesines and Indus it was joined by divers triremes and ves- 
sels of burden which had been built among the Xathri, a free 
people of India. 

Elephants were ferried over the Indus in some of these vessels, 
probably in those that were made to carry horses. This circum- 
stance indicates the size and strength of some of these vessels. 

Alexander established colonies and built docks and havens at 
several places along the Indus. His whole proceeding indicated 
an intention of permanent settlement and future commercial in- 
tercourse. The people of the lower Indus were acquainted with 
the channels, knew the ocean tides, currents and winds, and the 
most favorable time for sea navigation, a knowledge of all of which 

* Ptolemy, son of Logus, and surnamed Soter Onesicritus, and Nearchus, 
were officers in Alexander's expedition to India, and each wrote an account of 
it. Arrian lived in the reign of Hadrian, two hundred years after Alexander. 

26 



402 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



Alexander had acquired from them, and also had carefully ex- 
amined both principal branches of the Indus that flowed into the 
sea. 

As soon, therefore, as the Etesian or anniversary winds ceased, 
which on these coasts blew from the sea towards the land the 
whole summer, and thereby rendered navigation (outward) imprac- 
ticable during that time, they began their voyage (325 b. a), and 
Nearchus safely conducted the fleets from the mouths of the Indus 
to those of the Euphrates and up that river to Babylon, a route 
by which probably, in previous ages, the commerce of India had 
flowed into the great metropolis of the ancient world when in the 
height of its grandeur and glory, for at this time it was on its de- 
cline and decay. 

The accounts of this voyage of Nearchus, which show how the 
ancients travelled by sea, are among the most ancient in which 
the particulars of a voyage are given, and they contain some im- 
portant facts that are deserving of notice here. When the fleet 
had nearly arrived at the mouth of the river Arabius they " left a 
certain island on their left hand, which is so near joining the main- 
land that the channel which separates them seems to have been cut 
through. That day they sailed about seventy stadia. The shore 
all along the continent was full of thick woods, and the island op- 
posite thereto was also woody. About break of day they departed 
thence and passed through the above-mentioned channel by the help 
of the tides, and after a course of one hundred and twenty stadia 
arrived at the mouth of the river Arabius, where they found a 
large and safe harbor, but no fresh water, because the tide flows a 
great way up the river and makes it brackish ; wherefore passing 
about forty stadia up the river they came to a lake, the water of 
which being sweet, they took what they wanted and returned. 

The island opposite to this haven is high land and uncultivated, 
but round it are vast quantities of oysters and all kinds of fish, 
which make it frequented by fishermen. Thus far the country 
of Arabii extends itself, being the last part of India that way, for the 
Oritae inhabit the other side of the river * 

At Cabana they arrived in the evening, but because the shore 
was rocky and unsafe they were forced to lie off at sea. Here a 
violent storm arose, by which two long ships and one small bark were 
lost, but the men saved themselves by swimming, for it was not 
far from land. Leaving that place about midnight, after they had 
gained two hundred stadia they arrived at Cocala, where the 

* It thus appears that India extended on both sides of the Indus. By some, 
the Indus is made its western boundary. 



CHAP. XXXIX. J 



OF AMERICA. 



403 



sailors rested themselves upon shore while the ships rode at 
anchor at sea, and lest they should be exposed to the insults of 
enemies a trench was made round the place of their encampment. 
Nearchus and his men were ten days employed in bringing suffi- 
cient stores onboard the fleet and in refitting the ships that had 
been shattered by storms. 

Thence with a fair wind they sailed about five hundred stadia, 
until they came to a certain river called Tonierus, at whose en- 
trance into the ocean was a lake nigh the shore. The inhabitants 
of these parts dwelt in small huts, and had spears six cubits 
long, the points of which were sharpened and hardened in 
fire, so as to be able to do good execution. Their number was 
about six hundred. Nearchus with his men attacked these sav- 
ages, many of whom were slain in their flight and many taken ; 
the rest fled to the mountains. Those who were taken were found 
to be hairy all over their bodies, their nails sharp and long, like 
those of wild beasts. They had no iron among them, and made 
use of sharp stones to cut hard wood, and the skins of wild beasts 
or those of large fish served them for clothing. 

Here Nearchus ordered the ships to be drawn on shore, and those 
that were damaged to be repaired, and then, proceeding on the 
voyage, the sixth day they sailed six hundred stadia and arrived 
at the utmost limits of the country of the Orita?. The Orita?, who 
inhabit the inland parts, are clothed as the Indians and use the 
same weapons, but their language and customs are different. The 
length of this whole voyage from the mouth of the river Indus 
along the coast of the Arabii is one thousand stadia, and the 
length of the coast of the Orita? sixteen hundred stadia. 

After the Oritae the first country that presents itself along the 
coast is that of the Gadrosii, beyond whom dwell the Ichthyo- 
phagi. or fish-eaters, along whose coasts they passed. They arrived 
at Caloma, a village near the shore, where they refreshed them- 
selves, and where they found some dates and green figs. There 
was an island about one hundred stadia from the shore, called 
Carnine, where Nearchus received gifts and hospitable entertain- 
ment from the villages: their presents were cattle and fish. The 
flesh of their cattle eats fishy, not much unlike to sea-fowl, for 
they feed altogether upon fish,* there being no grass upon the 

* The Hon. George Keppel, captain in the East India Company's service, in 
his "Journey from India to England," in the year 1824, says : "We had an 
opportunity of ascertaining the excellent flavor of the beef, mutton and kid of 
Muscat, which, in common with cattle of every description, are fed on dates, 
fish and the seed of the cotton-plant. Strange to say, these animals thrive un- 



404 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



island. The next day, passing two hundred stadia further, they 
put to shore, and found a village thirty stadia up the country, 
called Cysa, though the name of the coast be Carbis. But there 
was no corn there, and the army on board began to be in want of 
that; however, they caught some goats, and having brought them 
on board, departed. Thence, sailing round a certain rocky prom- 
ontory which reaches one hundred and fifty stadia out into the 
sea, they came to a safe haven, where dwelt many fishermen, and 
where was plenty of fresh water; its name was Mosarna. 

Here, Nearchus tells us, he took in a pilot, to direct them how to 
steer their course along these coasts, a Gadrosian, who promised him 
to conduct the fleet safe to Carmania. All this shore from hence to 
the Gulf of Persia is less difficult to be passed, though much more 
famous in story, than those he had already passed. The fleet, there- 
fore, moved from Mosarna by night, arrived on the coast of Balo- 
mus, and then to a village called Barna, where were many palm 
trees, and gardens stored with myrtles and various sorts of flow- 
ers. Here they first found fruit-trees, and men somewhat less 
savage than any they had met since the beginning of their voy- 
age. Thence they came to Dendrobosa, where the fleet lay at 
anchor some time. Thence they gained the haven of Caphonla, 
where many fishermen resided, who made use of small slight 
boats, and rowed with paddles, which they thrusted into the 
water as diggers do their spades into the earth. Arrived at Cyiza, 
they cast anchor and refreshed themselves. Five hundred stadia 
further they arrived at a small town, which they surprised, and 
forced the inhabitants to show them all the stores of corn they 
had. When they had shown them all their stock they took what 
they had occasion for, consisting of fish dried and ground to 
powder, but of little wheat or barley, for the inhabitants made 
use of powdered dried fish for bread, and of wheat bread for 
meat. They arrived at Canasis, a city in ruins, where they found 
a well ready dug, and some palm-trees overshadowing it, the ten- 
derest parts of the tops of which they shred small and ate, for 
they now began to be in great want of bread. They, therefore, 
hoisted sail again and sailed all that night and the next day 
along a barren coast and then cast anchor, Nearchus being afraid 
to suffer them to land, lest they should take that opportunity to 

der this peculiar diet ; their flesh is not affected by any fishy savor, and the 
bntter was the best I had tasted since leaving England. The inhabitants of 
this and the opposite coast subsist almost entirely upon fish, not having altered 
in this respect since the time of Herodotus, who describes them as the Ichthyo- 
phagi, or Fish eaters." 



CHAP. XXXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



105 



leave their ships, because they began to despair of safety by sea. 
Thence departing, they proceeded to Canates, seven hundred and 
fifty stadia distant, and sailing thence, because it was a flat 
shore and everywhere separated by small ditches or rills of water, 
they came to Trsesi, a country about eight hundred stadia further, 
where they found a little corn and palm-fruits, and seized upon 
seven camels,* that they immediately killed and ate their flesh. 
Thence, continuing their voyage, they sailed to Dagesira, which 
place a certain wandering colony then possessed ; whence depart- 
ing they sailed that whole nightf and the next day, without cast- 
ing anchor or taking any rest on shore, and having thus proceeded 
eleven hundred stadia, they passed the utmost limits of the coun- 
try of the Ichthyophagi, and were forced to cast anchor in the 
open sea. The whole length of this country of the Ichthyophagi, 
as they computed it by this voyage, is ten thousand stadia. 

Vast store of crabs and oysters and all sorts of shell-fish are 
found on the coasts of the Ichthyophagi. The inhabitants build 
their houses in this manner : they gather up the bones of whales, 
or such other large fish as they find cast up upon the shore, and 
use the smaller bones for rafters and those of a larger size for 
door-posts. Whales of a vast bulk are often seen in these foreign 
seas. Nearchus tells us that in their voyage near Cyiza he saw 
the water one morning forced upwards in a violent manner, and 
rising aloft from the sea as if hoisted up by a whirlwind ; and 
when the mariners w T ere surprised at the strangeness of the sight 
and inquired of the pilots what could be the cause thereof, they 
were answered that fish sporting in the sea spouted forth water to 
that vast height; whereupon they were seized with so much fear 
that they suffered the oars to fall out of their hands. However, 
the admiral encouraged them, and ordered them whenever they 
perceived any of these monstrous fish approach to direct the beaks 
of their ships exactly towards them, as if they were going to engage 
an enemy in a sea-fight, as also to row stoutly and to make as loud 
a noise as they could, as well with their voices as their oars. The 
mariners thus instructed, recovered from their fright, and, upon 
the signal given, plied their oars manfully, and when they came 
near the fish not only shouted as loud as possible, but sounded 
their trumpets and beat the sea vehemently with their oars ; where- 
upon the whales, which were seen just under the beaks of their 
ships, terrified with the strangeness of the sounds, sank down to 
the bottom of the deep, and, rising again at some distance, began 

* So camels existed in this region before the Arabs conquered it. 
f Many times they sailed during the night, probably by moonlight and star- 
light, and because they found it cooler and more convenient. 



406 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



to spout forth the water as before. Some of these whales are left 
ashore in several parts of that coast (when the tide falls away) 
entangled in the shallows, others are thrown ashore by the vio- 
lence of the storms, and when their bodies are consumed and their 
flesh washed away, the bones of the skeleton serve the inhabitants 
instead of timber wherewith to build their houses : for many of 
these whales grow to the length of a hundred cubits.* 

After Nearchus, with the fleet under his command, had passed 
the coast of the Ichthyophagi they came to Carmania, and anchored 
their ships in the sea, because the shore there was rocky and dan- 
gerous. Thence, when they arrived at Badis, a well-cultivated part 
of Carmania, they found plenty of fruit-trees, and also great store 
of vines and corn. Thence proceeding eight hundred stadia they 
touched upon a shore wholly waste. From this place they saw a 
huge promontory stretched out a vast way into the ocean, which' 
seemed about a day's sail away from them. Those who under- 
stood the situation of the country affirmed that this promontory 
belonged to Arabia, and was called Maceta, and that cinnamon 
and other fragrant spices were conveyed thence to the Assyrians. 
From this shore, where the fleet la}^ at anchor, and the promon- 
tory which they then saw before them, the Gulf of Persia, which 
some call the Red Sea (Erythrian'), has its beginning. 

The fleet moving thence, and passing along the shore the dis- 
tance of seven hundred stadia, came to another coast called Neop- 
tana, and a hundred stadia farther arrived at a town called Har- 
mozia, at the mouth of the river Anamis, in a country pleasant 
and agreeable, and abounding in everything except olives. Here, 
going ashore, they gladty refreshed themselves. In the meanwhile, 
some of them roving farther than ordinary into the country, found 
a certain person there dressed after the Greek manner, who spoke 
Greek. They asked him who he was and how he came thither. 
He replied that he was a Grecian who had wandered from Alex- 
ander's camp, and that the king and his whole army were not far 
distant. He was thereupon conducted to Nearchus, and told him 
that the army lay encamped about five days' journey from that 
place.f He also proposed to bring the governor of that province 

* From this notice of whales, the inference is that there were no whales in 
the Mediterranean. But these men who were so frightened at the sight of them 
may have been landsmen unused to the sea. There were whales in the Red Sea, 
and the Egyptian sailors, iu all probability, were acquainted with them, for they 
navigated that sea. 

f Alexander, with one division of his army, went by land from India to 
Suza, marching near the sea, while another division marched more in the in- 
terior. The division under Alexander suffered greatly from famine and thirst, 
and many, from these causes, perished. 



CHAP. XXXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



407 



to'Nearchus, and did so, accordingly. He consulted with him how 
he should go to the king by land, which done, they went on hoard 
the fleet together. Early next morning he ordered the ships to be 
drawn on shore, partly to repair whatever was broken or shattered 
during the voyage, and partly because he determined to land most 
of the forces there; wherefore he took care to run a double ram- 
part and ditch round to secure them, and made a deep ditch 
from the bank of the river to that part of the shore where the 
whole navy lay. 

In the meantime, while Nearchus was making preparations for 
his journey, the governor imagined he should be royally rewarded 
if he carried to Alexander the first news that the army was safe 
and Nearchus on his way thither ; wherefore taking the nearest 
road he came to Alexander and told him the story. The king was 
rejoiced at the news, and men with horses and chariots who were 
dispatched to seek and bring Nearchus, met him and Archias on 
their way with no more than five or six attendants. At the first 
sight they knew neither of them, they were so much altered and 
looked so differently from what they had formerly done. The 
hair of their heads and their beards hung down in a negligent 
manner ; their faces were weather-beaten, swarthy, and sunburnt, 
and their bodies emaciated with much watching and hard labor. 
When Nearchus asked them the way to Alexander's camp they 
gave him directions and marched straight forward, but Archias, 
imagining on what errand they were sent, turned to Nearchus and 
said ' Let us make ourselves known to them, and inquire the reason 
of their journey this way.' This advice pleasing Nearchus, they 
asked them whither they intended to travel, and received answer 
that they were sent in search of Nearchus and the army on board 
the fleet, to whom he immediately replied 1 I am Nearchus, and 
this man is Archias ; be ye, therefore, our guides to the camp, and 
we will satisfy the king concerning the safety of both.' Taking 
them, therefore, into their chariots, they returned towards the 
camp. 

When the king was informed that Nearchus, Archias and only 
five more of their companions approached, he imagined that by 
some extraordinary providence they were preserved, but that the 
army on board the fleet was lost, and therefore his joy for their 
preservation could hardly balance the grief he endured for the 
supposed loss of the fleet. But when Nearchus arrived and made 
known to the king that his army and navy were both safe, and 
that he had come as a messenger of their safe arrival, the king's 
sorrow was turned to joy. 



408 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



The king spoke to him to this effect: ; I will henceforth no 
more expose thee, 0 Nearchus, to fresh toils and hazards, but will 
depute some other to convey the fleet to Susa.' To whom Near- 
chus replied : 1 I desire, and am in duty bound, to obey my sov- 
ereign in all things, but if you will show me any favor, let me 
obtain this my earnest request to preside over the fleet and army 
on board till they be safe at Susa ; and as I have with great dan- 
ger and hazards brought them thus far, let not another reap the 
glory of my toils and finish what is now easy and delightful.' 

Whilst he was thus speaking, Alexander told him to take heart, 
for his request was granted, and so dismissed him with a slender 
guard to his ships, because they were not to pass through an 
enemy's country ; wherefore making what haste they could they 
at last arrived safe at the sea-shore. 

They left that port (Harmozia), and after passing by a 
small island, rocky and barren, called Organia,* they arrived 
and landed at a large and well-inhabited island, called Oaracta, 
about three hundred stadia from the place whence they had 
sailed (Harmozia). It produces plenty of vines, palm-trees, and 
corn, and was fully eight hundred stadia in length. The governor 
thereof freely offered Nearchus his services both as a companion 
and a pilot in his voyage to Susa. In this island the sepulchre of 
the first monarch thereof is said still to remain, and that his name 
was Erythras, and from him the sea was called Mare Erythrseum. 
Thence they sailed about two hundred stadia farther, and arrived 
at another port in the same island, and thence they had the pros- 
pect of another island, about forty stadia distant, which was said 
to be sacred to Neptune, and was inaccessible. They departed 
thence early in the morning, but experienced so furious a storm 
that three of their ships were forced on the shallows, but after- 
wards got off and joined the fleet the next day. They all finally 
arrived at Tarsias, a promontory that runs far out into the sea, 
and sailing thence three hundred stadia arrived at Catea, a barren 
and rocky island into which sheep and goats are yearly conveyed 
by the inhabitants of the adjacent parts, as an offering to Mercury 
and Venus, to whom the island is sacred.| 

Thus far Carmania extends. The length of this voyage along 
the coast of Carmania is thirty-seven hundred stadia. The Car- 
manians live after the Persian manner, as, being their next neigh- 
bors, they use the same arms and observe the same martial disci- 

* See note at the end of this chapter. 

f Mercury, the god of Commerce, may have some significance here, though 
not a Persian god. 



CHAP. XXXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



409 



pline. The fleet sailed thence and came to Has, upon the Persian 
shore, opposite to which is an island named Ciacandrus. The 
next morning they arrived at an inhabited island wherein, as in 
the Indian Ocean, Nearchus assures us pearls are found. . Having 
passed the utmost point of this island, which was forty stadia far- 
ther, they found there a convenient station for their fleet. Thence 
they sailed to Ochus, a high mountain or promontory, where they 
found a haven safe from storms. Steering thence four hundred 
and fifty stadia, they arrived at Apostani, where they found many 
ships at anchor, and where was a village about sixty stadia from 
the shore. Thence renewing their voyage by night, and having 
gained four hundred stadia, they came to a noted bay, where were 
many villages, and where they lay at anchor nigh the foot of a 
mountain. The country thereabouts produces palms and other 
fruit-bearing trees, as good and in as great plenty as Greece. 
Thence they passed on about six hundred stadia farther, and ar- 
rived at Gogana, a country well-inhabited ; they anchored the fleet 
at the mouth of a certain small brook or river called Areon, a sta- 
tion dangerous enough, the entrance thereto being extremely nar- 
row, and almost choked up with the sand. Thence they pro- 
ceeded to the mouth of another river named Sitacus. They found 
here a safe station. The whole voyage along the Persian coast 
was among rocks and shallows ; the shore itself was low, marsh 
ground. There Nearchus found plenty of corn, w T hich the king 
had purposely conveyed thither for the sustenance of the army on 
board. Here they tarried twenty-one days, and not only drew all 
their crazy and weather-beaten ships on shore, and repaired them, 
but refitted some which were, at first sight, judged incapable of 
proceeding farther. 

Then again putting to sea, they arrived at Hieratis, a place well 
inhabited, where they drew their fleet up into a canal called Hera- 
temis, and departing thence came to the mouth of the river Podar- 
gus. This country, which is a peninsula and called Mesambria, 
they found stored with gardens, and in them fruit of all kinds. 
Thence sailing about two hundred stadia they arrived at Taoce, 
nigh the mouth of the river Granis; about two hundred stadia up 
this river, in the inland parts, is a palace of the Persian monarchs. 
Thence progressing, they arrived at the mouth of the river Ra- 
gonis, where was a safe haven ; and still farther they came to the 
mouth of another river, Brizana, where they had an unsafe sta- 
tion because of the numerous rocks and shelves thereabouts. 
While the tide flowed in they rode well enough, but when it 
ebbed they stuck fast among the shallows. However the next 



410 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



tide they sailed thence, and anchored at the mouth of the river 
Arosis, the largest of all that they had observed during the whole sea- 
voyage. The Persian territories extend to this river and no farther, 
those of Susa beginning on the other side. The whole coast of 
Persia is four thousand four hundred stadia in length. 

From the mouth of the river Arosis the fleet entered upon the 
country of Susa. All the tract of sea along that coast is shallow 
water, and rocky, so that no haven can be gained without danger. 
As their pilots had assured them that no fresh water was to be pro- 
cured along that coast, they therefore, while they lay at the mouth 
of the river, took in a supply of fresh water for five days. From 
this place Nearchus tells us he cannot give such a certain 
account of all occurrences relating to the voyage as before, except 
the several ports they entered and the distances they sailed. 

About five hundred stadia from their last station they cast an- 
chor at the mouth of a certain lake called Caladerbis, the small 
island Margastana being opposite it. Departing thence, they 
sailed through some shallows, the channel being so narrow as not 
to admit of two ships to sail abreast. Huge posts are fixed here 
and there to point out the way. These shallows are formed by a 
deep, stiff clay on each hand, so that ships sticking there are never 
to be moved by any human artifice, for long poles thrust into it 
avail nothing, nor can the sailors venture out of their vessels to 
recover their poles thus thrust down into the clayey bottom, be- 
cause it yields to their weight and sucks them up to their arm- 
pits. Thus they sailed six hundred stadia with great difficulty, 
not daring to put into any port to refresh themselves. At night 
they kept off from the shore, and all the next day, till the even- 
ing, when they gained nine hundred stadia, and now approached 
the mouth of the river Euphrates, and came to a small village in 
the Babylonian territory named Diridotis, to which place the Ara- 
bian merchants bring frankincense and all other spices, the pro- 
duct of their own country, to dispose of. From the mouth of the 
Euphrates up to Babylon Nearchus reckons the distance to be 
thirty-three hundred stadia (412 \ English miles)."* 

The length of the coast from the Indus to the Euphrates, by the 
measurements given by Nearchus, is twenty-two thousand seven 
hundred stadia, or two thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven 

* The care with which the channel is marked out with balizes for the gui- 
dance of vessels, the various ports to which the pilots conducted the fleet, the 
" many ships " they saw at Apostani, and the Arabian merchants at Diridotis 
with their frankincense and spices from Arabia Felix, all indicate extensive 
commerce and navigation, yet the ruin of Babylon was already begun. 



CHAP. XXXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



411 



English miles. Nearchus stopped at several places and remained 
a considerable time at some of them. The utmost time employed 
at sea to make this voyage did not exceed sixty-one days, and the 
whole voyage could be reduced to about four months. 

The voyage of Nearchus was justly regarded as an enterprise as 
perilous as it was important. Alexander himself speaks of it as 
one of the most extraordinary events that had distinguished his 
reign. The Greeks knew but little of the art of navigation. The 
Phoenicians possessed nearly the whole of it in antiquity, and 
they certainly would have pushed very far their discoveries had 
they known the compass. 

"At Diridotis Nearchus received a messenger, who brought him 
an account of Alexander's march to Susa, and therefore, returning 
thiough the lake to the mouth of the river Pasitigris,* he sailed 
up that river, through a rich and populous country, one hundred 
and fifty stadia, and there tarried, expecting those whom he had 
sent to inquire where the king was encamped. When news of 
Alexander's approach arrived, they again sailed up the stream to 
a bridge newly built, over which the king was to pass his force on 
their march to Susa. There the two armies joined. 

At Susa Alexander committed the best part of his forces to 
Hephestron, while he, with the rest, going on board the fleet, 
which lay ready at Susa, sailed down the river Euleus (same as 
Pasitigris) to the sea, and when he was not far from the month 
thereof, leaving there those ships which were shattered and out 
of order, he, with the best of them, sailed out into the ocean, and 
then entered the mouth of the Tigris (the rest of the fleet passing 
through a canal drawn from thence to the Euphrates), and sailed 
up the Tigris to his camp, where Hephestron, with the forces under 
his command, waited his arrivaLf 

It was scarcely possible for Alexander, on his return to Baby- 
lon, to remain idle. The care of his vast empire was scarcely an 
occupation for him. A crowd of projects then presented them- 
selves to his mind, and he wished to execute them all. The means 
did not embarrass him ; he had need but to live. We cannot 
doubt of these projects, since they are consigned to his own 
memoirs. 

First it concerned the construction in Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, 

* The Pasitigris and the Euleus are names of the same river. The city Susa 
is called Shushan by Daniel. — Dan., chap, viii., verse 2 — and the river Ulai is 
there mentioned, which, probably, is the same as the Euleus. Curtius calls it 
Choaspes. — [Abridged from note to Arrian.] 

t Arrian' s "Indian History." 



412 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



and the Island of Cyprus, of one thousand long ships, stronger 
than the triremes, destined to carry the war among the Carthagin- 
ians and other peoples bordering on Lybia and Iberia and on the 
coasts of Sicily. For the use of this fleet ports were to be dug and 
arsenals constructed in the places most available on the route as 
far as the Columns of Hercules. It was then the question of found- 
ing colonies in Asia, the means of securing and increasing these 
relations, either between themselves or with Europe.* Most of the 
historians of this prince are pleased to comment upon his projects, 
or to make different changes in them. Some attributed to him the 
design of coasting Arabia and make the tour of all Africa to arrive 
at Gades, and to fall upon Italy and Sicily. f Arrian asserts that 
he can say nothing certain, nor form any conjecture upon such 
projects, but he believed that nothing little entered the mind of 
Alexander, and that he could never remain quiet so long as he 
should aspire to the possession of any country. 

The discovery of the coasts of the Caspian Sea was one of the 
designs which he had most at heart. He ordered Heraclide to 
cut wood in the forests of Hercania, to build long ships, some with 
decks, others without them, destined for this first discovery. The 
preparations for the second were made at Thapsacus. They were 
to transport all the wood cut on Mount Lebanon — the king of 
Cyprus had orders to furnish iron, rails, and cordage — to Thapsa- 
cus, on the river Euphrates, and thence, the material put together, 
they were to descend the river, at the time of the floods, to Baby- 
lon. According to Aristobulus, it was in this last town that the 

* Several other great projects are mentioned, but they do not concern the 
present subject, so are omitted. They will be found in a book entitled " Ex- 
amen Critique des Anciens Historiens de Alexandre le Grande." 

t The preparations of Alexander appear to me to have been made to sail 
from the Euphrates around Arabia to Egypt, then, with the one thousand ships 
ordered to be constructed in " Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, and the Island of Cy- 
prus," and his own fleet transported to the Nile (for he had transported his 
vessels in India from the Indus to the Hydaspes by taking them to pieces at 
the Indus), assemble all of them at Alexandria, proceed to and surprise Car- 
thage, unprepared for such a combination. Such surprises and rapid move- 
ments are characteristic of Alexander. The circumnavigation of Arabia and 
Africa to reach Carthage scarcely deserves notice, except to show the ignorance of 
some ancient authors in regard to Africa and the situation of Carthage. I might 
add that the canal of Nechos had been nearly completed, so Alexander would 
not have been under the necessity of transporting his fleet all the way from the 
Eed Sea to the Nile, besides, he could have finished the canal with the immense 
forces at his command. It had been begun and prosecuted for a number of years 
by Nechos, and Darius had advanced the enterprise, so it is probable that it had 
progressed nearly to its terminus when finished by Philadelphus. 



CHAP. XXXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



413 



fleet of Nearchus repaired, where were found two pentiremes, three 
quadriremes, twelve triremes, and thirty vessels of thirty oars.* 
They had been transported in pieces, on the backs of camels, from 
Phoenicia to Thapsicus, whence, after having been put together, 
they sailed to Babylon. This little fleet, by favor of the floods, 
had been able to arrive at its destination, but not without great 
difficulty and much damage. It is probable that this induced 
Alexander to have others built of cypress, of which there was a 
considerable quantity in Assyria. 

Other naval stores which these ports afforded not were supplied 
by the purple-fishers and other seafaring men belonging to Phoe- 
nicia and the coasts thereabouts. He then dug a deep and capa- 
cious basin for a haven at Babylon, capable of containing a thou- 
sand long galleys, and built houses for all manner of naval stores 
adjoining thereto. He also dispatched Miccalus of Clazomene, 
with five 'hundred talents, into Phoenicia and Syria, to hire or pro- 
cure as many sailors as he could, because he designed to fix colo- 
nies all along the shores of the Persian Gulf and the neighboring 
islands, for he was of opinion that that coast might, in time, be- 
come as rich and populous as the Phoenician coast. He made 
these extraordinary preparations for fitting out a fleet on a pre- 
tence of making war against the Arabians. The extent of their 
country, according to his information, along the sea-coast, was not 
less than India, and that many islands lay not far off. Two islands 
in particular, reported to lie in the sea over against the mouths of 
the Euphrates, one whereof was not above one hundred and 
twenty furlongs distant from the mouth of that river and the sea- 
shore. The other island is about a day and night's sail distant 
from the mouths of the Euphrates, and named Tylus ; it is very 
large, and not mountainous nor woody, but produces plenty of 
several sorts of fruits pleasant and agreeable to the taste. These 
accounts were delivered to Alexander by Archias, who was dis- 
patched in a ship with thirty oars on purpose to discover the navi- 
gation of those seas ; and when he had arrived at the island of 
Tylus durst proceed no further. However, Androsthenes, being 
sent afterwards with another ship of the same sort, discovered a 
great part of the Arabian coast. But Hieron of Soli far exceeded 
all who went before him upon the discovery of that shore, for he 
with a galley of thirty oars was commanded to sail round the 
whole Arabian Chersonese until he arrived upon the gulf border- 
ing upon Egypt, and the city of Heroes. But neither durst be 

* Other accounts mention the same, except, instead of pentiremes. they put 
quinquiremes, which most probably they were. 



414 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



venture so far as he ought, though he sailed almost round the 
country of Arabia.* In the meantime, while they were busied in 
preparing triremes and digging the basin at Babylon, Alexander 
sailed down the Euphrates to the canal called Pallacopas, which 
is distant from Babylon about eight hundred furlongs (Pallacopas 
is not a river, but a canal drawn from the Euphrates), and by that 
canal into the Arabian territories, where, finding a situation suit- 
able to his purpose, he built a city which he environed with a wall 
and therein planted a colony of Greek mercenaries. When Alex- 
ander returned to Babylon he took much pleasure in seeing his 
fleet exercise their oars, and there was a great emulation between 
the trireme and the quadrireme galleys in the river ; but in the 
midst of these preparations Alexander died May 22d, 323 b. c, in 
the 32d year of his age, having reigned nigh seven years over Asia, 
and almost thirteen over his hereditary dominions. 

The death of Alexander was followed by the civil wars between 
his generals, which lasted to the great battle of Ipsus, 301 b. c, 
and left Ptolemy Soter in possession of Egypt, who was succeeded 
by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who during his whole reign was em- 
ployed in exciting industry and in encouraging the liberal arts 
and useful knowledge among his subjects. He gave every possi- 
ble encouragement to commerce, and by keeping two powerful 
fleets, one in the Mediterranean and the other in the Red Sea, he 
made Egypt the mart of the world. With justice he has been 
called the richest of all the princes and monarchs of his age, since 
at his death he left in the treasury a sum equivalent to two hun- 
dred million sterling. He finished the great canal connecting the 
Nile with the Arabic Gulf, and built at its terminus on the Gulf 
the city of Arsinoe, which for a long period was the very life of 
navigation and commerce on the Sinus Arabicus, forming the 
connecting link between the traffic of Egypt and that of the East. 
In the process of time, however, the dangerous navigation of the 
upper part of the Gulf induced the construction of a harbor lower 
down, where was built the city of Berenice, from which a road 
two hundred and fifty-eight miles in length was made across the 
intervening desert to Coptos, on the Nile. From this harbor the 
vessels of Eg} r pt took their departure for Arabia Felix and India. 

* Yet Scylax had made the voyage from the mouth of the Indus to the 
head of the Ked Sea, of which, perhaps, Nearchus was ignorant. In antiquity 
so seldom and so limited was the intercourse of literary men with foreign na- 
tions, that probably some important events in one nation were unknown in 
another, and thus have erroneous impressions been left by those who were not 
better informed. 



CHAP. XXXIX.] 



OF AMERICA. 



415 



It was also through the medium of Berenice and the caravan route 
to Coptos that the principal trade of the Romans with India 
was conducted. By this line of communication it is said that a 
sum not less than what would he now four hundred thousand 
pounds was remitted by the Roman traders to their correspondents 
in the East in the payment of merchandise which ultimately sold 
for a hundred times as much. With such a stimulus to commerce 
navigation must have been carried to the highest degree of activity 
at that period. After the foundation of Alexandria the Indian 
trade was almost entirely carried on by the merchants of that city. 
Pliny has given an interesting account of the trade between India 
and Alexandria as it existed in his own time. We learn from him 
that the ships of the Alexandrian merchants sailed from Berenice 
and arrived in about thirty days at Ocelis or Carrie, in Arabia. 
Thence they sailed by the southwest monsoon in forty days to 
Muziris (Mangalore), the first emporium of India, which was not 
much frequented on account of the pirates in the neighborhood. 
The port at which the vessels usually stayed was that of Barace 
(at the mouth, probably, of the Nelisuram river). After remain- 
ing in India till the beginning of December or January, they 
sailed back to the Red Sea, met with the south or southwest wind, 
and thus arrived at Berenice in less than twelve months from the 
time they set out. 

The same author informs us that the Indian articles were car- 
ried from Berenice to Coptos, a distance of two hundred and fifty- 
eight Roman miles, on camels, and that the different halting- 
places were determined by the wells. From Captos, which was 
united to the Nile by a canal, the goods were conveyed down the 
river to Alexandria. We may form some idea of the magnitude 
of the Indian trade under the emperors by the account of Pliny, 
who informs us that the Roman world was drained every year of 
at least fifty millions of sesterces (upwards of one million nine 
hundred thousand dollars) for the purchase of Indian commodi- 
ties. The profit upon this trade must have been immense, since 
Pliny states that the Indian articles were sold at Rome at one hun- 
dred per cent, above their cost price. The articles imported by 
the Alexandrian merchants were chiefly precious stones, spices, 
perfumes, and silk. 

Though in the East navigation had progressed to such an extent 
under the Ptolemies, yet three hundred years before this period 
the Carthaginians appear to have advanced with a like rapidity 
and to as great an extent in the West. Descendants of the most 
maritime people of antiquity, they had inherited their knowledge 



416 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XXXIX. 



and skill in nautical affairs, and thus established their naval su- 
premacy in the West." 

* ORMUS. 

" Organa appears to be what is now known as the island of Or- 
muz, orHormutz, which is traversed by a high volcanic mountain, 
is barren, rocky and sterile. It is about five miles from the conti- 
nent of Persia, somewhat more than twenty-five miles from that 
of Arabia, and is about ten miles in circumference. The city of 
Ormus was founded in the beginning of the fourteenth century. 
Its commodious situation rendered it formerly the most famous 
mart of the East. Ships repaired there from all parts of the In- 
dies, from the coasts of Africa, Egypt and Arabia, and a regular 
trade was carried on by caravans across the country. At proper 
seasons of the year merchants resorted to it from all countries, 
and particularly the Venetians, who carried a great trade in jewels, 
transported hence to Bassora, and by caravans to Aleppo, or to 
Suez by sea, then overland and by the Nile to Alexandria, where 
they were delivered to the merchants to whom they were consigned. 
Caravans passed twice a year, viz., in April and September, from 
Aleppo to Bassora, and thence were transported by sea to the isle 
of Ormus. These caravans consisted of five or six thousand per- 
sons, and brought with them articles of immense value. At the 
same time private ships navigated the sea from Malacca, and the 
caravans that traversed Persia brought vast quantities of rich and 
valuable commodities. The city and castle of Ormus were in 
ancient times deemed the pride and glory of the East, the mag- 
nificence of which was expressed after the Oriental manner in 
this phrase : ' That the world being round as a ring, Ormus might 
be considered as its jewel.' By the wealth which flowed into it 
and from it, it became the richest and most busy, not to add the 
most delightful city in the world. Ormus had two good ports, 
which served as the entrepot to the commerce of Persia with the 
Indies. It was the most brilliant and most agreeable city of the 
East. There were to be seen men from nearly all parts of the 
world making exchanges of their goods, and carrying on their 
business with a politeness and respect little known in other places 
of commerce. This tone was given by the merchants who com- 
municated to strangers a part of their affability. Their manners, 
the good order which was maintained in their city, the conveni- 
ences, the pleasures of every kind that were collected there, all 
concurred in attracting merchants there. The pavements of the 
streets were covered in some places with carpets ; the awnings 
which projected from the tops of the houses made the heat of the 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



417 



sun supportable. They had des cabinets des Indes adorned with 
golden or porcelain vases, in which were shrubs or fragrant herbs. 
There were in the public squares camels loaded with water. They 
were lavish of Persian wines, as well as of perfumes and the most 
exquisite nutriments. They heard the best music of the East. 
Ormus was filled with beautiful young women of the different 
countries of Asia. There was enjoyed all the delights that the 
resort of wealth could attract — an immense commerce, an ingeni- 
ous luxury, a polished people, and gay women. 

Albuquerque attempted in vain, in 1508, to take the island. It 
was defended by thirty thousand men, and had in its harbor four 
hundred vessels, sixty of which were brigs, and having in all 
twenty-five hundred men on board. He returned, however, in 
1514 with an overwhelming force, and having obtained possession 
of the island, he erected a strong fort. It remained in their pos- 
session one hundred and twenty years, and advanced so rapidly 
in wealth and splendor that it was deemed the richest spot in the 
world. In 1622 it surrendered to the combined arms of England 
and Persia, and thus having fallen into the power of the Persians 
went to decay."* 



CHAPTER XL. 

Alexander's Plans — The Voyage of Han no — Bougainville's Comments on the 
Voyage of Hanno — Carthaginian Colonies in Africa — Carthaginian Traffic 
— Gold Mines of the Senegal and Rio-d'-Ouro— The Voyages and Ves- 
sels of Columbus — The Nina — The Storm— The Hurricane - The Duration 
of the Voyages of Columbus across the Atlantic Ocean— Humboldt's Account 
of the Route from the Canaries to Cumana — The Voyage of Bligh in a 
Launch. 

From the statements of those who were with Alexander, and 
from the grand naval preparations at Babylon and in the islands 
of the Mediterranean tributary to Alexandria, it is apparent that 
at the time of his death he had formed a gigantic scheme for con- 
quering the Carthaginians, the most powerful and active maritime 
nation of the Mediterranean. The coasts of this sea from the 
Hellespont to the river Nile were his, and he determined to pos- 
sess them westward of that river to the ocean, to do which this 
great naval power had to be conquered. 

Carthage at this period was prosperous and populous, and 

* "Rees' " and " Edinburgh Encyclopaedia." 
27 



418 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XL. 

so greatly had multiplied its inhabitants more than three hun- 
dred years before the time of Alexander that it was found neces- 
sary to send some of them abroad to found colonies on the west- 
ern coast of Africa.* For this purpose a fleet of sixty ships of 
fifty oars was fitted out at Carthage, on board of which embarked 
thirty thousand emigrants, and Hanno put in command of it. Of 
this voyage Hanno wrote an account which, abridged, has been 
transmitted to modern times. Montesque puts the periplus of 
Hanno among the most precious monuments of antiquity, and 
Bougainville adopts the same sentiment, and gives, in the collec- 
tion of the "Academy of Inscriptions " at Paris, a curious memoir 
upon this voyage, besides a translation of the periplus itself, with 
the necessary explanations, the substance of which is the follow- 
ing : 

But before giving the critical account of Hanno's voyage by Bou- 
gainville, a brief sketch of this important voyage will be given from 
Anthon's " Classical Dictionary," where a particular account of it 
will be found under the article "Hanno.'" By giving here this 
sketch the reader will, by comparing the two. see in one the omis- 
sions in the other, and form a better idea of the settlements made, 
and the country visited by Hanno : " When we had passed the 
Pillars on our voyage, and sailed beyond them for two days, we 
founded the first city, which was Thymiaterium. Below it lay an 
extensive plain". Proceeding thence towards the west we came to 
Solocis, a promontory of Libya, a place thickly covered with trees, 
where we erected a temple to Neptune. Then proceeding half a 
day, we came to the lake with reeds. Having passed the lake about 
a day's sail we founded cities near the sea, called Cariconticos and 
Gytte, and Acra and Melitta. and Arambys. Then we came to 
the river Lixus. Beyond the Lixitae dwelt the inhospitable Ethi- 
opians who pasture a wild country intersected by large moun- 
tains, whence they say the river Lixus flows. Having procured 
interpreters of them (the Lixans), we coasted along a desert coun- 
try towards the south two days. Thence proceeding towards the 
east the course of a day, we found in a recess of a certain bay a 
small island. There we founded Cerne. We judged, from our 
voyage, that this place lay in a direct line with Carthage, for the 
length of our voyage from Carthage to the Pillars was equal to 
that from the Pillars to Cerne.f Then they next came to the Lake 

* This expedition is generally supposed to have taken place about 570 b. c. 
Gail, however, places it between 633 and 530 b. c. 

. f The Carthaginians appear to have imagined they .sailed eastward from the 
Pillars of Hercules. 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



419 



with three islands larger than Cerne, which lake they reached by 
sailing up a large river. A day's sail above these islands they came 
to the extremity of the lake, which was overhung by large moun- 
tains, and where they were stoned by the inhabitants and thus 
prevented from landing. Thence they came to another river large 
and broad, and full of crocodiles and hippopotami, whence they 
returned to Cerne. Thence* we sailed towards the south twelve 
days, coasting the shore, inhabited by Ethiopians, who fled from 
us. Towards the last days we approached some large mountains 
covered with trees, the wood of which was sweet-scented and va- 
riegated. Having sailed by these mountains two days we came to 
an immense opening of the sea, on each side of which, towards the 
continent, was a plain, from which we saw by night fire arising by 
intervals in all directions. Having taken in water here, we sailed 
forward five days near the land until we came to a large bay 
called the Western Horn. In this bay was a large island, and in 
the island a salt-water lake, and in this lake another island, where, 
when we had landed, we could discover nothing in the daytime 
except trees, but in the night we saw many fires burning, and 
heard the sound of pipes, cymbals, drums, and confused shouts. 
We were then afraid, and our diviners advised us to abandon the 
island, bailing quickly thence, we passed a country burning with 
fire and perfumes, and streams of fire supplied from it fell into 
the sea. The country was impassable on account of the heat. We 
sailed thence, and passing on for four days discovered at night a 
country full of fire. In the middle was a lofty fire, larger than 
the rest, which seemed to touch the stars. When day came we 
discovered it to be a large hill called the Chariot of the Gods.T On 
the third day after our departure thence, having sailed by these 

* As Hanno returned to Cerne, and then renewed, or rather continued, his 
voyage, he probably went again over the same route to where he had ended his 
"particular" voyage, and a Thence" began anew as described after the word 

t Meyers, in his " Remains of Lost Empires," thus describes a scene he viewed 
in crossing the range of mountains that environ Cashmere : " From the top of 
the range we had a weird view. The forests which crowned one of the loftiest 
peaks ahead were all ablaze, and the whole summit glowed like a volcano. The 
fire running down the valleys looked like streams of burning lava, leaping in 
fiery cascades down the abrupt flanks of the mountains ; and while the tires 
that formed the blazing crown of the peak seemed mounted half way up the 
heaven, there were hidden fires burning in profound valleys far beneath us. 
that only revealed themselves by the lurid reflection they shot up the steep 
slopes against the sky, which seemed through the glow of the night as if thrown 
ap from the open doors of Pluto's dominions." 



4:20 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XL. 



streams of fire, we arrived at a bay called the Southern Horn, at 
the head of which lay an island like the former, having a lake, and 
in the lake another island full of gorillas." etc. 

The following is Bougainville's account and explanation of the 
same voyage. As he was one of the most distinguished navigators 
and discoverers of France, and probably bad visited the places he 
describes, his opinions merit the highest consideration: 

' ; Hanno left the port of Carthage at the head of sixty vessels, 
which carried a great multitude of passengers destined to people 
the colonies he was going to establish. This numerous fleet was 
loaded with provisions and munitions of every kind, as well for 
the voyage as for the new settlements. Ancient Carthaginian 
colonies had been planted from Carthage to the Strait, so that the 
operations were not to begin but beyond this limit. 

Hanno having passed the Strait did not stop until, after two days 
of navigation, he arrived near the promontory of Hermeum, 
near Cape Cautin. and it was to the south of this cape that he set- 
tled the first colony. The fleet continued its route as far as a cape 
covered with trees, which Hanno named Sola?, and which the 
periplus of Scylax puts at three days' journey farther than the 
preceding. It was probably the Cape Bajador, so named by the 
Portuguese because of the very dangerous currents which format 
this place waves that break here with great violence. 

The Carthaginians doubled the cape: a half a day's journey 
brought them in view of a great lake, adjoining the sea. filled with 
reeds, and its borders thronged with elephants and other wild ani- 
mals. Three days and a half of navigation separated this lake 
from a river named Lixus by the Carthaginian admiral. He an- 
chored at the mouth of this river, and remained there for some 
time to carry on commerce with the Lixite nomads spread along 
the borders of the Lyceus. This river can be but the Rio-d ; -Ouro, 
a kind of arm of the sea. or of a pond of salt water, which Hanno 
would have taken for a great river at its mouth. 

Afterwards the fleet anchored near an island which Hanno calls 
Cerne. and he left on this island some inhabitants to form there a 
colony. Cerne is no other than our island of Arguin. called Ghir 
by the Moors. It is fifty miles from Cape Blanco, in a great bay 
formed by this cape, and a sand bank of more than fifty miles in 
extent from north to south, and a little less than a league wide 
from east to west : its distance from the continent of Africa is 
scarcely a league. 

Hanno having again put to sea, proceeded as far as the borders 
of a great river, which he named Chres. at the extremity of which 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



421 



he saw high mountains inhabited by savages clothed with the skins 
of wild beasts. These savages opposed the landing of the Cartha- 
ginians, and repulsed them by throwing stones at them. Accord- 
ing to all appearances this river Chres is the river St. John, which 
flows to the south of Arguin, at the southern extremity of a great 
shelf. It receives the waters of several considerable lakes, and 
forms some islands in its channel, besides those which are seen 
to the north of its mouth. Its environs are inhabited by nomads 
of the same kind as those of the Lixus, and they are probably the 
savages which Hanno saw. 

Having continued his navigation along the coast towards the 
south, it conducted him to another river, very large and very deep, 
filled with crocodiles and hippopotami. The greatness of this river 
and the ferocious animals that it nourished certainly designates 
the Senegal. He limited his particular voyage to this great river, 
and, retracing his route, he went to seek the rest of his fleet in the 
road of Cerne. 

After twelve days of navigation along a level coast, the Cartha- 
ginians discovered an elevated country and mountains covered 
with forests. These wooded mountains of Hanno should be those 
of Serra Leona, which begin beyond the Rio Grande and continue 
to Cape St. Anne. 

Hanno gives twenty-six days, clearly expressed in his peri- 
plus, to go from the Island of Cerne to the gulf which he names 
the Southern Horn ; it is the gulf of the coast of Guinea, which 
extends as far as Benin, and which, beginning to the west of Cape 
Trois-pointes, ends to the east of Cape Formosa. 

Hanno discovered in this gulf a particular island filled with 
savages, among whom he believed he saw more women than men. 
They had bodies all hairy, and the interpreters of Hanno called 
them Gorillas.* The Carthaginians pursued these savages, who 
escaped from them by their speed in running. They seized three 
of the women, but they could not take them alive, so great was 
their ferocity ; they were obliged to kill them, and their skins 
were carried to Carthage, where, until the destruction of that city, 
they were preserved in the Temple of Juno. The island of the 
Gorillas is some one of those which are found in great numbers in 
this lake. The neighboring country is filled with animals like 
those which Hanno took for wild men. 

The Cape Trois-pointes was the limit of the discoveries of Hanno. 
The want of provisions obliged him to conduct back his fleet to 

* This is probably the first instance in which this word and these Siniia are 
mentioned in history. 



422 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XL. 



Carthage. He re-entered there full of glory, after having penetrated 
as far as the fifth degree of latitude, taken possession of a coast of 
nearly six hundred leagues, by the settlement of several colonies, 
from the strait to Cerne, and founded on this island a safe and 
commodious depot for the commerce of his countrymen, which 
increased considerably after this expedition. 

There are no proofs that the Carthaginians preserved afterwards 
all the knowledge that they owed to the voyage of Hanno. It is 
even presumed that their merchants went not, at first, beyond the 
Senegal, and that gradually they left many on this side of that 
river. 

At the time of Silax* the Island of Cerne had become the limit 
of navigation for large ships. The colon} 7 of Hanno maintained 
itself there, and Cerne was always the entrepot for the commerce 
of the Carthaginians to the south of Africa. Their large vessels 
remained in the road of the island, the farther coast not being 
easily navigated because of the rocks and shoals, covered with 
grass, which are frequently met with there. The} 7 embarked at 
Cerne in light boats, on which they went to trade along the coasts, 
and even in the rivers, which they ascended quite far. 

Silax mentions a town of Ethiopians, or Negroes, where they 
went to trade, and gives us a detail of the merchandises of both 
parties and their manner of trading. The Carthaginians carried 
there earthen vessels, tiles (tuiles), Egyptian perfumes, and some 
jewelry, of little value, for the women. In exchange, they received 
the skins of deer, lion, and panther, and the hides and tusks of 
elephants. These hides were of great use for cuirasses and bucklers. 

Silax is silent in regard to the gold-dust which they also derived 
from those countries, j It was a secret of their commerce, of which 
doubtless he was ignorant, having consulted but the routes of the 
pilots, where they had taken care not to mention this important 
article. But Herodotus, instructed by the indiscretion of some 
Carthaginians, reveals it to us in his history." 

There is still seen in the island of Arguin a monument of the 
long sojourn of the Carthaginians. It is two covered cisterns ex- 
cavated in the rock with " immense labor " to collect the waters of 
divers sources, and shelter them from the excessive heat of the 

* The year 360 b. c, according to Niebuhr. 

| Scylax, a celebrated geographer, born in Caria, flourished some time after 
Hanno, that is to say, about 330 years before Christ. There is under his name 
a very interesting periplus, which is, perhaps, a brief abridgment of his work. 
In it he speaks of some Phoenician towns built upon the coast of Africa, among 
others, of the town of Thymiaterium, which Hanno built. 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



423 



climate. These cisterns, marked in some plans of the fort on this 
island, belonging to the French India Company, contain sufficient 
water to furnish many large ships. It is not a work of the Moors. 
These people, masters of the interior of the country and of the 
coasts, have no need to undertake them ; besides, they arc not 
navigators. So we are obliged to attribute them to the Carthagin- 
ians, ancient possessors of the island, after the discovery of 
Hanno.* 

The periplus of Hanno appears the most ancient, and the only 
morsel of this kind that we have in the original. It is anterior 
to the commencement of the reign of Alexander, that is to say, 
the year 336 before Christ, since he speaks in it of Tyre as a flour- 
ishing town, which had its own particular king, and which is situ- 
ated on an island separated from the continent by a shoal of three 
stadia. It is seen by this that the voyage of Hanno is more an- 
cient than the year 336 b. c. Pliny says it was in the time of the 
potency of the Carthaginians, " Carthagenis potentia florente." But 
this power commenced so earty that we cannot fix the date of it.f 

" We have the authority of the Carthaginians to affirm that 
beyond the Columns of Hercules there is a country inhabited by 
a people with whom they have had commercial intercourse. It is 
their custom on arriving among them to unload their vessels and 
deposit their goods along the shore. This done, they again em- 
bark and make a great smoke from on board. The natives, see- 
ing this, come down immediately to the shore, and placing a 
quantity of gold, by way of exchange, for the merchants, retire. 
The Carthaginians then land, and if they think the gold equiva- 
lent, they take it and depart; if not, they go aboard their vessels. 
The inhabitants return and add more gold till the crews are sat- 
isfied. The whole is conducted with the strictest integrity. "J 

Along this coast where the Carthaginians traded is the country 
of Bambouk, south of the Senegal, where most of the gold which 
finds its way to the coast is obtained. The richest gold mine 
known in Africa is that of Natakoo, a small, round isolated hill. 
The next richest mine in this part of Africa is that of Nambia, 
situated at the back of the western chain of the Tabaoura Moun- 
tains. It is found in a hill similar to that of Natakoo. In the 
valley east of the river Oro is the mine of Kombodyria — an iso- 
lated mount of argillaceous clay, as in the former two cases. Here, 
too, the beds of the adjacent streams contain gold, which, in this 

* The Portuguese may have made these cisterns. 

t ' ' Dictionaire des Sciences par Didero & D'Alembert." 

X Herodotus, born 494 b. c. , finished his history 446 b. c. 



424 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XL. 



part of Western Africa, is found distributed over a surface of twelve 
hundred square miles. Large quantities of gold are also found 
on the banks of the Barra, on the west coast- 
It does not appear that the Carthaginians had any difficulty in 
doubling Cape Bajador, }^et nearly nineteen hundred years after 
that event the Portuguese, in the progress of their discoveries 
along the western coast of Africa, were delayed for fifty years by 
this very cape which the Carthaginians had doubled without dif- 
ficulty, for if there had been any it would probably have been 
mentioned, since it had proven such an impediment and terror 
to the Portuguese. 

When Hanno had reached Cape Three Points, the limit of his 
voyage, he judged that he had reached the line (longitude) in 
which was Carthage — a close calculation, considering the state of 
navigation at that time, and very far superior to that of Columbus, 
who, when he had reached Cuba, believed he had discovered 
Cipango, or Japan, and yet he was not a third of the way to it, 
and more than eight thousand miles from it. Cerne, now Arguin, 
the colony established by Hanno, is very little north of the twen- 
tieth degree of north latitude, and scarcely more than three de- 
grees north of the Cape Verde Islands, which are about three 
hundred and ninety miles from Cape Verde, on the continent of 
Africa, and nearly in the same degree of longitude as Cerne, or 
Arguin, viz., about 17° or 18° west of Greenwich. 

Besides the Cape Verde Islands, there are the Madeira Islands, 
and the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa one hundred and 
eighty miles, along which the Carthaginians traded from the Strait 
of Gibraltar to Cape Formosa. As the colonies settled on the west 
coast of Africa, in all probability, existed from their founding, 
not less than five hundred years before Christ, to the reduction 
of the Carthaginian power in the Second Punic war, two hundred 
years before Christ, a period of not less than three hundred years,* 
it is reasonable to believe that a people so maritime, energetic, and 
powerful, became, not long after the founding of their colonies, 
acquainted with all these clusters of islands, the farthest of which 
does not exceed four hundred miles distance from the continent, 
while the nearest were about ninet} T miles.t 

* The founding of the Carthaginian colonies on the coast of Africa is gen- 
erally supposed to have taken place 570 b. c. Gail places it between 633 and 
530 b. c. 

t It is surprising the different distances given to these islands by some en- 
cyclopaedias. There was considerable difference in that given in three of them, 
while some make no mention of their distance from the continent. 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



Of the three vessels with which Columbus crossed the widest 
part of the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the New World in 1492, 
two of them were light barks, called caravels, not superior to river 
and coasting craft of more modern days. They are delineated as 
open and without deck in the centre, but built up high at the 
prow and stern, with forecastles and cabins for the accommoda- 
tion of the crew. Peter Martyr, the learned cotemporary of Co- 
lumbus, says that only one of the three vessels was decked. The 
smallness of the vessels was considered by Columbus as an ad- 
vantage in a vo}^age of discovery, enabling him to run close to 
shore and to enter shallow rivers and harbors. That such long 
and perilous expeditions into unknown seas should be undertaken 
by vessels without decks, and that they should live through the 
violent tempests by which they were frequently assailed, remain 
among the singular circumstances of those daring voyages. 

In the fifteenth century the bulk and construction of vessels 
were accommodated to the short and easy voyages along the coast 
which they were accustomed to perform. We have many proofs, 
however, that even anterior to the fifteenth century there were 
large ships employed by the Spaniards as well as by other nations. 
In an edict published in Barcelona in 1354 by Pedro IV. mention 
is made of Catalonian merchant ships of two and three decks and 
from eight to twelve thousand quintals burden. 

In 1463 mention is made of a Venetian ship of seven hundred 
tons which arrived at Barcelona from England, loaded with wheat. 
These arrivals show that large vessels were in use in those days. 
Indeed, at the time of fitting out the second expedition of Colum- 
bus there were prepared at the port of Brimeo a caracca of twelve 
hundred and fifty tons and four ships of from one hundred and 
fifty to four hundred and fifty tons burden. 

It was not, therefore, for want of large vessels in the Spanish 
ports that those of Columbus were of so small a size. He had 
some purposely constructed of a very small size for his service. 
Such was the caravel which in his third voyage he dispatched to 
look out for an opening to the sea at the upper part of the Gulf 
of Para when the water grew too shallow for his vessel of one hun- 
dred tons burden and requiring three fathoms of water. The most 
singular circumstance with respect to the ships of Columbus is 
that they should be open vessels ; for it seems difficult to believe 
that a voyage of such extent and peril should be attempted in 
barks of so frail a construction. This, however, is expressly men- 
tioned by Peter Martyr in his " Decades," written at the time, and 
mention is made occasionally in memoirs relative to the voyage 



426 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XL. 



written by Columbus and his son of certain of his vessels being 
without decks. He sometimes speaks of the same vessel as a ship 
and a caravel. In the Mediterranean, caravel designates the largest 
class of ships of war among the Musselmans ; in Portugal it means 
a small vessel of from one hundred and twenty to one hundred 
and forty tons burden; but Columbus sometimes applied it to a 
vessel of forty tons. 

That the word caravel is intended to signify a vessel of a small 
size is evident from a naval classification made by King Alonzo 
in the middle of the thirteenth century. In the first class he 
enumerates Naos, or large ships which go only with sails, some 
of which have two masts and others only one. In the second 
class smaller vessels, as Caraccas, Fustas, Ballenares, Pinazas, Cara- 
belas, etc. In the third class vessels with sails and oars, as galleys, 
galeots, tardantes, and saetias. 

Bossi gives a copy of a letter written by Columbus. With this 
he gives several wood-cuts of sketches made with a pen, which 
accompanied this letter, and which he supposes to have been 
made by Columbus. In these are represented vessels which are 
probably caravels. They have high bows and sterns, with castles 
on the latter. They have short masts, with large square sails. 
One of them, besides sails, has benches of oars, and is probably 
intended to represent a galley. They are all evidently vessels of 
medium size and light construction. It appears, therefore, to be 
a fact that most of the vessels with which Columbus made this 
long and perilous voyage were of this light and frail construction, 
and little superior to the small craft which ply on rivers and 
along the coasts in modern days. 

The Santa Maria, fully decked, carried sixty-six persons, but 
none from Palos ; the Pinta, decked forward and aft, carried, offi- 
cers and crew, thirty men, besides several passengers, all, with 
one exception, from Palos or from Moguer; the Nina had a crew 
of only twenty-four men, and the rest of the friends and neigh- 
bors of the Pinzons, and was decked only at the stern.* 

This little vessel, the Nina [23], has a history which merits a 
record here. Lorgues says : " The smallest of the three ships, 
the caraval whose name indicates its smallness, la Nina (the babe), 
was provided only with a lateen sail, as the fishing-boats of Mar- 
seilles." When the Santa Maria went aground in the channel be- 
tween the island Tortuga and Hispaniola, or Hati, Columbus went 
on board the Nina and returned to Spain on this vessel. " On the 

* I mention the decks as made in the copy of the vessels sent to Chicago in 
1894. 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



427 



12th of February, 1493, as they were flattering themselves with 
soon coming in sight of land, the wind came on to blow violently, 
with a heavy sea. They still kept their course to the east, but 
with great labor and peril. On the following day, after sunset, 
the wind and swell increased ; there were three flashes of light- 
ning in the north -north east, considered by Columbus as signals 
of an approaching tempest. It soon burst upon them with fright- 
ful violence. Their small and crazy vessels (Nina and Pinta), 
open and without decks, were little fitted for the wild storms of 
the Atlantic. All night they were obliged to scud under bare 
poles. As the morning dawned on the 14th, there was a transient 
pause, and they macle a little sail, but the wind rose again from 
the south with redoubled vehemence, raging throughout the day, 
and increasing in fury in the night, while the vessel labored ter- 
ribly in a cross sea, the broken waves of which threatened each 
moment to overwhelm them or dash them to pieces. For three 
hours they lay to with just sail enough to keep them above the 
waves ; but, the tempest still augmenting, they were obliged again 
to scud before the wind. Columbus continued to scud all night. 

As the day dawned the sea presented a frightful waste of wild 
broken waves lashed into fury by the gale. He now made a little 
sail to keep the vessel ahead of the sea, lest its huge waves should 
break over it. As the sun rose the wind and waves rose with it, 
and throughout a dreary day the hapless bark was driven along 
by the fury of the tempest. After heavy showers, there appeared 
at sunset a streak of clear sky in the west, giving hopes that the 
wind was about to shift to that quarter. These hopes were con- 
firmed ; a favorable breeze succeeded, but the sea still ran so 
high and tumultuously that little sail could be carried during 
the night. 

On the morning of the 15th, at daybreak, a cry of land was 
given by a mariner in the main-top. A near approach proved it 
to be an island ; it was but five leagues distant. For two days 
they hovered in sight of the island, vainly striving to reach it,* 
or to arrive at another island of which they occasionally caught 
glimpses through the mist and rack of the tempest. On the 
evening of the 17th they approached so near the first island as to 
cast anchor, but, parting their cable, had to put to sea again, 
where they remained beating about until the following morning. 
On sending the boat to land, Columbus ascertained the island 
to be St. Mary's, the most southern of the Azores." 

The Nina was one of the vessels of the fleet with which Colum- 

* The wind had changed and blew directly from the land. 



428 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XL. 



bus made his second voyage to the New World. While here in 
port Isabella "a terrible storm swept the island. It was one of 
those awful whirlwinds which occasionally rage within the tropics, 
and were called by the Indians ruicans, a name they still retain, 
with trifling variation. About midday a furious wind sprang up 
from the east, driving before it dense volumes of cloud and vapor. 
Encountering another tempest of wind from the west, it appeared 
as if a violent conflict ensued. The clouds were rent by incessant 
flashes, or, rather, streams of lightning. At one time they were 
piled up high in the sky ; at another they swept to the earth, fill- 
ing the air with baleful darkness more dismal than the obscurity 
of midnight. Wherever the whirlwind passed, whole tracts of 
forests were shivered and stripped of their leaves and branches ; 
those of gigantic size, which resisted the blast, were torn up by the 
roots and hurled to a great distance. Groves were rent from the 
mountain precipices, with vast masses of rock and earth tumbling 
into the valleys with terrific noise and choking the course of 
rivers. The fearful sounds in the air and on the earth, the peal- 
ing thunder, the vivid lightning, the howling of the wind, the 
crashing of falling trees and rocks, filled everyone with affright, 
and many thought that the end of the world was at hand. Some 
fled to caverns for safety, for their frail houses were blown down, 
and the air was filled with the trunks and branches of trees, and 
even with fragments of rocks, carried along by the fury of the 
tempest. When the hurricane reached the harbor it whirled the 
ships round as they lay at anchor, snapped their cables, and sank 
three of them, with all who were on board. Others were driven 
about, dashed against each other, and tossed mere wrecks upon 
the shore by the swelling surges of the sea, which in some places 
rolled for three or four miles upon the land. The tempest lasted 
for three hours. When it had passed away and the sun again ap- 
peared, the Indians regarded each other in mute astonishment and 
dismay. Never in their memory nor in the traditions of their an- 
cestors had the island been visited by such a storm."* The four 
caravals of Aguado were destroyed, with two others which were 
in the harbor. The only vessel which survived was the Nina, and 
that in a very shattered condition. Columbus gave orders to have 
it immediately repaired and another caraval constructed out of 
the wreck of those which had been destroyed. The new vessel, 
the Santa Cruz, being finished and the Nina repaired, on the 10th 
of March, 1496, they sailed for Spain. Columbus embarked on 
the Nina, and in the other Aguado. Lorgues in his " Life and 

* Washington Irving' s ' ' Life of Columbus. ' ' 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



129 



Voyages of Christopher Columbus'' (French) says: "Alas! of 
Aguado's four caravals, and three others that were at anchor, only 
a single one remained — the smallest, the oldest, and the most 
fragile of all — the Nina ! That caraval which had succored the 
Admiral in his shipwreck at Navidad, which had brought him 
back to Palos, which had afterwards, under the name of Santa 
Clara, borne him to the explorations of Cuba, the discovery of Ja- 
maica, and the archipelago of the ' Queen's Garden,' whence she 
had returned rickety, leaky, and ready to founder in the port, 
seeming to be inevitably doomed to perish !" Columbus immedi- 
ately ordered the repairing of the Santa Clara and the building of 
another caraval, which he named the Santa Cruz. 

The squadron with which Columbus made his fourth voyage and 
went as far west as the Isthmus of Panama, consisted of four cara- 
vals, the smallest being only fifty tons burden, and the largest 
seventy. These small vessels encountered in the Caribbean Sea 
storms as dreadful as those which the Nina had experienced, and, 
like it, had survived them. 

It was early in the morning of the 6th of September, 1492, that 
Columbus sailed from the island of Gomera, one of the Canary 
cluster of islands, to cross the Atlantic Ocean the first time, and it 
was on Friday morning, the 12th of October, 1492, that he first 
beheld the New World. It thus appears that his squadron was 
thirty-seven days at sea. 

On his second voyage, when he crossed the Atlantic from the 
Canary Islands, " the 13th of October a fair breeze sprung up from 
the east which soon carried them out of sight of the island of 
Ferro. Being in the region of the trade-winds the breeze contin- 
ued fair and steady with a quiet sea and pleasant weather, and by 
the 24th they had made four hundred and fifty leagues west of 
Gomera (one of the Canary cluster of islands). On the morning 
of Sunday, the 3d of November, he arrived at Dominica, thus 
crossing the Atlantic in twenty-one days. 

On his third voyage he left Spain with six vessels, but off the 
Canary Islands he dispatched three vessels of his squadron direct 
to Hispaniola, and with the three remaining vessels proceeded to 
the Cape Verde Islands, and thence sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. 
The ship on which he sailed was decked and of a hundred tons 
burden : the other two were merchant caravals. Of this voyage, if 
the days he was becalmed (eight) and the days he was in sight of 
the Island del Fuego (two) be deducted from the time he was 
sailing across the Atlantic, it leaves the voyage only sixteen days, 
but in this voyage, when he believed he had reached the longi- 



430 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XL. 



tude of the Caribbean Islands, he bore towards the northward in 
search of them. It is not mentioned how many days he sailed 
northward till he discovered the island of Trinidad, but it is prob- 
able that had he continued on his westward course he would have 
discovered land much earlier, and thus have diminished the 
length of the voyage, reducing it to less than sixteen days. 

On his fourth voyage Columbus left the Canary Islands on the 
evening of the 25th of May for the New World. The trade-winds 
were so favorable that the little squadron of three vessels, one of 
which was of fifty tons burden, swept gently on its course without 
shifting a sail, and arrived on the 15th of June at Mantinano, so 
called by the Indians, and supposed to be Martinico."* 

The Carthaginians, as a maritime nation, became acquainted with 
the ocean tides and currents and the winds along the coast where 
they traded. It is hardly to be doubted that they were acquainted 
with the trade-winds, and that they knew of the monsoons by 
which the vessels of the ancients leaving the coast of Arabia were 
wafted across the ocean to India. The trade-winds of the Atlantic 
Ocean are similar to the monsoons of the Indian Ocean. Hum- 
boldt, who, in the year 1799, crossed the Atlantic from the Canary 
Islands to the port of Cumana in New Andalusia, thus speaks of 
this route and the trade-winds : 

" We left the road of Santa Croix (one of the Canary Islands) in 
the afternoon of the 25th of June, and we directed our course to 
South America. It was blowing very fresh from the northwest, 
and we soon lost sight of the Canary Islands ; the Peak (Teneriffe, 
eleven thousand four hundred and thirty feet high) alone appeared 
from time to time through the clear places. 

Our passage from Santa Croix to Cumana, the most eastern part 
of Terra Firma, was most favorable. Our route was that followed 
by all the vessels destined for the Antilles from the first voyage 
of Columbus. Arrived at the zone where the trade-winds are con- 
stant, we crossed the ocean from east to west on a sea so calm and 
quiet that the Spanish navigators called it el Golf de las Dames. We 
experienced — as all those who have frequented these latitudes — 
that in degree as we advanced towards the west the trade-winds, 
which are at first from the east-northeast, settled from the east. 
Navigators knew for centuries that in the Atlantic Ocean the 
equator did not coincide with the line which separates the trade- 
winds of the northeast from the general winds of the southeast. 
This line, as Halley has very well observed, is found in the third 
or fourth degree of north latitude. 

* Washington Irving' s " Life of Columbus." 



CHAP. XL.] 



OF AMERICA. 



131 



It is known that in the passage from Santa Croix to Cumana, 
as in that from Acapulco to the Philippine Islands, the sailore 
have scarcely any necessity to touch the sails. The}' navigate in 
these latitudes as if they were descending a river; and we believe 
that it would not be a hazardous enterprise to make the voyage in 
a long-boat without deck. 

In proportion as we leave the coast of Africa the wind moderates 
more and more. It often calms for several hours, and these potty 
calms are regularly interrupted by electric phenomena. Dark 
clouds, heavy and of marked contour, form in the east. One would 
have said a gust of wind was going to force them to lower and take 
in the topsails, but very soon the breeze freshens again, a few large 
drops of rain fall, and the storm is dissipated. It is by the aid of 
these little gusts of wind, which alternate with calms, that they 
pass, in the months of June and July, from the Canaries to the 
Antilles or to the coasts of South America."* 

The shortest distance between Africa and America is from Sierra 
Leone, where were founded the Carthaginian colonies by Hanno, 
and Cape St. Roque in Brazil, which is somewhat more than half 
the distance from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean Islands, or 
about seventeen hundred and fifty miles, which is only four hun- 
dred miles more than the distance Columbus made in eleven days 
on his second voyage.f 

" The same chances which led Christopher Columbus to un- 
known countries when he was seeking a route to the west to reach 
the eastern coasts of the Indies and of China may have carried other 
navigators to the continent which is to the west of Europe and 
Africa. Contrary storms have been able to carry there the Phoeni- 
cians in driving them from the coasts of Africa, to which they 
went merely to traffic, in leaving the ports which they had on the 
Red Sea."t 

But it is quite as possible that a knowledge of the trade-winds 
and the passion for commerce and gold induced the Carthaginians 
to venture beyond the Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, as the 
same impulse had impelled the Tyrians to circumnavigate Africa. 

There is no account of the Carthaginians having ever made a 
voyage from Africa to America, but from what has been hereto- 

* Humboldt left the Canaries the 25th of June, in a slow-sailing vessel, and 
arrived at Cumena the 16th of July, 1799. 

f Not having facilities for obtaining exact distances, those here given are 
from compass measurements on maps, and do not pretend to be exact, but 
approximate, distances. 

% Pluch. 



432 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 

fore related of them it will hardly be doubted that they had the 
ability to do so ; but there is an account of a voyage more extra- 
ordinary than any that has ever been made either in ancient or 
in modern times, and shows how countries may have been popu- 
lated in ancient times. A launch, commanded by Lieutenant 
Bligh, with eighteen persons whose weight, together with that of 
the few articles they were permitted to take with them, brought 
down the boat so near the water as to endanger her sinking with 
but a moderate swell of the sea, and to all human appearances in 
no state to survive the length of the voyage they were destined to 
perform over the ocean, passed in forty-one days a distance over 
the Pacific Ocean of three thousand six hundred and eighteen nau- 
tical miles in safety* from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands in 
the Pacific Ocean, to Timor, one of the islands of the East Indies. 
Considering that such a voyage was made under the most trying 
circumstances, who can doubt that a Carthaginian ship, as large 
if not larger than the Nina, with two masts, four sails, fifty oars, 
and one hundred and seventy men, could have securely sailed 
across the Atlantic Ocean, seventeen hundred and fifty miles, 
from Africa to America ! 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Migrations — Transmission of Names — The Phoceans — Massalia — Samians — 
Tartessus — Caravan Routes — The Country of the Mongols and Toltecans — 
Kalkas Tartars — The Toltecs' Route — Aleutian Islands — Indian Offshoots 
— Tepes— Volney's Description of Indians — Volney on Languages — Me- 
shikenakwa or Little Turtle — Jefferson on Language— President D. S. Jor- 
dan on the Urgent Need of a National University. 

From remote time, people emigrating or expelled from their own 
country and settling in another have taken with them the relig- 
ious and political institutions of the mother country, and have 
named their cities after those of their former homes, thus associat- 
ing with the name of the city or province the origin of their peo- 
ple. Thus the inhabitants of Massenia, a country of Pelepon- 
nesus, when they could no longer successfully resist the Lacedemo- 
nians, left (625 b. c.) their native country and emigrated to Sicily, 
where, aided by Anaxites, king of Regium, they took the city of 

* There were, at first, nineteen men, but soon after their departure one was 
killed by the natives of an island where they had stopped for provisions. See 
" A Description of Pitcairn Island." 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



Zaucle, spared and incorporated the inhabitants with themselves, 
and changed its name to Massena, which exists to this day. 

The Phoenician power, which had attained its apogee about the 
eleventh century before Christ, maintained itself in all its devel- 
opment among the eastern races during three or four hundred 
years. The revolutions of Asia, the subversion of the metropolis, 
the great city of Tyre, overwhelmed by the Assyrians, led to the 
ruin of the Phoenician colonies of Europe. The Gauls, the Legu- 
rians, the Aquitains, seized upon the mines which the Phoenicians 
had taught them to work ; the Greeks, whose young civilization 
began to radiate into all the Mediterranean, took possession of the 
Phoenician ports of the Galla-Ligurian coast. The Rhodeans, 
who then held the first rank among the Grecian Isles, founded a 
new Rhodes between the mouths of the Rhine, but they were very 
far from elevating themselves to the grandeur of the Phoenicians, 
and their settlements were already on the decline when there ar- 
rived from Asiatic Greece a colony whose destiny was to be more 
brilliant and more durable. 

" In the year 600 before Jesus Christ, the first Phocean vessel 
anchored on the coast of Gaul, to the east of the Rhine ; it was 
commanded by a merchant named Euxene, engaged in a voyage 
of discovery. The gulf where he landed depended upon the ter- 
ritory of the Segobriges, one of the Gallic tribes that had main- 
tained its liberty in the midst of the Legurian population. The 
chief or king of the Segobriges, whom the historians called Nann, 
welcomed with friendship these strangers and led them to his 
home, where a great feast was prepared, for that day his daughter 
was to marry. Mingled among the Gallic and Ligurian aspirants 
the Greeks took their place at the feast, which consisted, accord- 
ing to usage, of venison and cooked herbs. 

The young woman, named Gyptis according to some, and Petta 
according to others, did not appear during the repast. The Ibe- 
rian custom, preserved among the Ligurians and adopted by the 
Segobriges, required that she should not appear until the end of 
it, bearing in her hand a cup filled with some beverage, and that 
he to whom she presented it to drink was to be reputed the spouse 
of her choice. At the moment when the feast was ended she 
therefore entered, and, either by chance or some other cause, says an 
ancient narrative, stepped in front of Euxene and tendered to him 
the cup. The unexpected choice struck with surprise the whole 
assembly. Nann believed he saw in it a superior inspiration and 
an order of his gods. He called the Phocean, his son-in-law. and 
gave him as a dower the gulf where he had landed. 

28 



434 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 



Without losing time, Euxene sent to Phoceahis vessel and some 
of his companions charged to recruit colonists in the mother coun- 
try. In the meantime he laid the foundation of a town which he 
called Massalia * 

In the meantime the messengers of Euxene reached the coast 
of Asia Minor and the port of Phocea. They made known to the 
magistrates the marvellous adventures of this voyage, and how, 
in regions of which they scarcely knew the existence, Phocea had 
suddenly found herself mistress of a territory and the favor of a 
powerful king. Excited by these accounts, the young men en- 
listed in crowds, and the public treasury, according to usage, 
was charged with the expense of transportation, and furnished the 
provisions, utensils, arms, divers seeds, as well as plants of the 
olive and the vine. At their departure the emigrants took from 
the sacred hearth of Phocea fire destined to perpetually burn upon 
the sacred altar of Massalia, a living and poetical image of the 
affection which they promised the mother country ; then the long 
Phoenician galleys of fifty oars, and bearing at the prow the sculp- 
tured image of a Phocean, departed from the port. They repaired 
first to Ephesus, where an oracle had ordered them to land. There 
a woman of high rank, named Aristarche, revealed to the chief of 
the expedition that Diana, the great goddess of Ephesus, had or- 
dered her, in one of her dreams, to take one of her statues, and to 
go and establish her adoration in Gaul. Transported with joy, 
the Phoceans welcomed on board the priestess and her divinity, 
and a fortunate passage conducted them to the shores of the 
Segobriges. Massalia prospered, enlarged and re-erected the for- 
tified posts of the Phoenicians and Rhodeans.f 

According to Herodotus the Phoceans were the first people of 
the Hellenes who performed long voyages. They discovered the 
Adriatic Sea, Tursenia, Iberia and Tartessus, and they made their 
voyages, not in merchant vessels, but in war galleys. When they 
arrived at Tartessus they were hospitably received by the king of 
the Tartessians, whose name was Argenthonius. He reigned over 
Tartessus for eighty years, and lived one hundred and twenty. 

There can be no doubt that the subjects of Argenthonius were 
the colonies of early Phoenicia, who were totally independent of 
Carthage, and were a rich, prosperous and enlightened race of 
men. Their chief city, the river on whose banks it was built, as 
well as the adjacent territory, were all called Tartessus, being the 

* Which word or name finally became Marseille, the celebrated seaport city on 
the Mediterranean. Massalia rose to power on the ruins of Carthage, 
t Martin's " History of France." 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



1:35 



emporium with which the fleets of Solomon traded, and whence 
the Sidonians procured that tin, without which they could not 
have manufactured that bronze which from the earliest period 
was so largely made and so widely diffused by Sidon, "abound- 
ing in bronze." The earliest specific notice of any intercourse 
between the historic Hellenes and these flourishing colonies of 
the ancient Phoenicians is in the fourth book of Herodotus, where 
he describes the colonization of Cyrene by the Therceans. This 
event took place at least 638 years before Christ. As a prepara- 
tory step they had sent a vessel to reconnoitre the coast, and hav- 
ing discovered the island of Platea, took possession of it, and left 
their pilot Corcebus to occupy it until their return. They sup- 
plied him with provisions adequate to his use for a certain time. 
" But," writes Herodotus, " when they continued absent beyond 
the appointed time, the whole store of Corcebus was consumed. 
But then a Samian ship, whose owner was Coleus, on her voyage 
to Egypt, touched at this island, Platea, and, after leaving with him 
a year's provision, sailed from the island for Egypt, but were car- 
ried from their course by an east wind, and as the gale continued 
they passed through the Herculean Pillars and arrived at Tartes- 
sus. These men, having returned safe, were the greatest gainers 
from their cargo of all the Hellenes of whom we have any accurate 
account." From the tenth of their profits they dedicated a mag- 
nificent bronze cauldron to their patron goddess, Hera, which, 
with its three colossal supporters, also of bronze, and seven cubits 
tall, remained till the time of Herodotus, a lasting memorial of 
their prosperous visit to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. 

There cannot be much doubt that the cargo of the Samian ves- 
sel which made this fortunate voyage consisted principally of the 
amber of the northwest coast of Europe, of the tin of Great Britain, 
and of the silver produce of the Spanish mines, for Tartes- 
sus was the great emporium of all these highly valued materials. 
Phocea long profited by her daring enterprise, but the invasion 
and conquest of Ionia by the armies of Cyrus gave a fatal blow 
to her prosperity. A portion of her citizens abandoned their 
native land and found rest and a home in Massalia, where, in the 
days of her supremacy, the parent city had founded a colony six 
hundred j^ears before Christ.* 

* John Williams, Archdeacon of Cardigan, in one of his "Essays on Vari- 
ous Subjects," London, 1848. Anthon, in his "Classical Dictionary," says: 
" The Phocians resolved to sail to Corsica, where twenty years prior to these 
events they had founded a town named Alalia." But as Marsellia was settled 
previous to Alalia, it may reasonably be conjectured that they went to it or to 
both places. 



436 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XLI. 



The Carthaginians founded a city in Spain and called it New 
Carthage, after the mother city in Africa ; and it has already been 
mentioned how Tartessus, on the river Beatis, in Spain, founded 
by the Cilicians, was named after the capital of Cilicia, Tarsus, on 
the river Cydnus.* 

And so in modern times in the founding of cities and colonies 
in America. The English named Plymouth after a town in Eng- 
land, whence the colony had sailed. The Hollanders, when they 
settled on Manhattan Island, named their town New Amsterdam. 
When the Palatines settled in North Carolina, New Bern was 
named after the capital of Switzerland. The French of Louisiana 
named their capital New Orleans, after Orleans in France, though 
it was said to be named after the Duke of Orleans, at that time 
Regent of France. The word new shows that it was to distin- 
guish it from the old city. 

If we turn to South America, there is found the same custom 
of naming cities and provinces after those of Spain, whence its 
colonies came. 

Now this same custom can be traced among the Aztecs and 
Toltecas. There is in Mongolia, north of the Great Desert, a town 
called Kara-korum, formerly the capital of the empire of Genghis 
Khan, and in the region in which this city is situated a desert 
and a river each called " Tula," or Tolla. 

Atkinson, in his " Travels in the Regions of the Upper and 
Lower Amoor," says: "During my wanderings I became ac- 
quainted with several merchants who had frequently visited Yar- 
kand, Kashgar, and Cashmere. Between these places caravans 
often pass, so that various wares are constantly being transported 
through this country without any extraordinary difficulty. It is 
a well-known fact that the caravans which travel from Kulja into 
some of the interior provinces of China encounter greater dangers 
than will be met with between Yarkand, Kashgar, and the Indus. 

From Yarkand there is a caravan-road going to the northeast 
in a direct course into Mongolia ; numerous routes branch from it 
into the tea provinces and to various parts of the Chinese empire. 

Yarkand is a place of considerable trade, and a great number of 
Chinese, Tartar, Bakarian and Cashmerian merchants reside there. 
Formerly Persians were also numerous, but now there are but 
few in the city. The bazars are three miles and a half in length. 

* Herodotus says that the people of Cilicia were anciently called Hypochaei, 
and that the appellation of Cilicians was subsequently derived from Cilix, son 
of Agenor, a Phoenician. This passage seems to point to a Phoenician origin, a 
supposition strengthened by the commercial habits of the people of Cilicia. 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



437 



Rich silks and porcelain are conspicuously displayed ; also brick- 
tea appears in vast quantities, as well as printed calicoes from Ko- 
kan. The loom of Cashmere contributed its quota to the mass of 
manufactured goods.* 

Shortly after leaving Yarkand the route crosses the river of that 
name, and then proceeds to the northeast and passes the Kashgar 
at the small town of Bar-tchuk, after which it follows this river for 
more than two hundred miles over a fertile country till it reaches 
Kara-tal, where it crosses the Ac-sou. Hence it takes a course to- 
wards the Syan-shan Mountains, crossing the river Sha-yar, 
whence it turns due north to Koutche, which contains a Chinese 
garrison. To the north of this place is the Moussoor-Daban (or 
pass), on the route to Kuljar. After passing Koutche the route 
runs to Tokanai, along the foot of Youldouz Mountains, through 
Youggur, till it reaches Kalgaman, then to Kara-shara. The next 
town of importance through which it passes is Tourfan, and then 
Pidjan. On leaving Pidjan the route ascends the first ranges of 
Kongar-adzirgan, then crosses the chain and joins the route com- 
ing from Tarbagati and Tchou-bachak, and thence to Barkol or 
Tchin-si. Numerous caravans pass through this place on their 
way to Tchou-bachak and Ourga. 

On leaving Barkol, or Tchin-si, the route passes for more than 
two hundred miles over a grassy steppe, on which the Mongol 
tribes find good pasture for their herds of horses and cattle. It 
then enters the sandy plain of Tchagan Tola. Water is found here, 
but very little pasture. Having passed this dreary waste the 
traveller reaches the northern slopes of Khangai-Oula, where pas- 
ture and water are abundant. It then crosses the chain at a point 
about fifty miles west of Kara-korum, on the river Orkhon. Here 
is the town, once- so famed, where Genghis Khan held his court. 
A friend of mine, a Cossack officer, with a party of his men and 
two mining engineers, explored the Orkhon twenty-five years ago 
in search of gold, when they visited the site of the ancient capital 
of the Mongols. I ascertained from his description that there are 
few remains left to mark its magnitude, and nothing to indicate 
any former splendor. 

The northeastern face of the Khangai-Oula Mountains gives rise 
to a great many rivers that fall into the Selenga, which collects 
nearly all the waters on the south and west of the Baikal and be- 
comes the great affluent of that mountain sea. The route then 

* By these articles of merchandise is indicated the immense extent of the 
caravan communications with Yarkand. It is well to reflect that these routes, 
or, at least, several of them, have existed for ages. 



438 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES 



[CHAP. XLI. 



descends into the valley of the Orkhon and passes some ruins on 
the shore of a small lake.* 

It then follows the north bank of the Orkhon for more than 
one hundred miles to its juncture with the Tola . This river runs 
from the east, having its rise on the western side of the Kingan 
Mountains, and on the eastern face of the chain is the source of 
the Keroulun, the longest affluent of the Amoor. After crossing the 
Orkhon a little below the juncture of the rivers the route turns 
due east for about one hundred and thirty miles till it joins the 
road between the Chinese towns of Mai-ma-tchin and Ourga. It 
enters the road at Kountsai, about sixty miles from Ourga and one 
hundred and twenty from Mai-ma-tchin, From this point the 
caravans follow the post-road, going over the mountains to Mai- 
ma-tchin, : the place of trade,' which stands on the edge of a 
plain which stretches to the south to a chain of wooded hills, ex- 
tending to the east thirty or forty miles, nearly to the river Kiran, 
while to the west it runs up towards the Selenga. The plain is 
said to be about twenty-five hundred feet above the level of the 
sea."f 

" Of all the Mongol nations dependent on China the most nu- 
merous and famous are the Kalkas, who take their name from the 
river Kalka. Their country extends from Mount Altai, in the. 
west, to the province of Solon in the east, and from the fifty-first 
degree of latitude to the northern extremity of the great desert of 
Kobi. The Kalkas, descendants of the Mongols, were, about the 
year 1368, expelled from China, and retreating northward settled 
chiefly along the rivers Selinga, Orkhon, Tula, and Kerlon, where 
they returned to the roving and sordid life of their ancestors. 

The Kerlon, which is about sixty feet broad, and not deep, 
washes the richest pastures of the Tartars. The Tula, or Tola, 
runs from east to west, and, in most places, is larger, deeper, and 
more rapid than the Kerlon ; has fine meadows and more woods : 
the mountains on the north side are covered with large fir. This 
river, having joined itself to three others which come from the 
southwest, runs towards the north, and, after being increased by 
several others, flows into the great lake Baikal. 

Kara-korum was to the north of the great desert Kobi and near a 
lake. It was the imperial seat of the Khans till Kublay removed it 
to Sheng-tu, which continued to be their summer residence as long 
as the Mongols were in possession of China, but after their expul- 
sion, about the year 1368, it is probable Kara-korum became again 

* This is claimed to be the site of Kara-korum. 

t Atkinson. . v 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



139 



the seat of the Khans. Neither the time nor the occasion of the 
destruction of Kara-korum is mentioned by any historians known 
to us."* 

The Toltecas being banished from their own country 596 a. d., 
which appears to have been the kingdom of Tollan (Toltecolt 
signifying an inhabitant of Tolland), wandered for the space of 
many years till they arrived at a place to which they gave the 
name Tollantzinco, about fifty miles east of the spot where some 
centuries after was founded the famous city of Mexico ; but they 
did not choose to remain in that country, and in less than twenty 
years after they went about fifty miles to the west, where, along 
the banks of a river they founded the city of Tollan, or Tula, so called 
after the name of their native country, and made it the capital of their 
kingdom. 

The Aztecas, or Mexicans, who were the last people who settled 
in Anahuac, lived until about the year 1160 of the vulgar era in 
Aztlan, a country which Boturini says w r as a province of Asia. 
Torquemada says he observed an arm of the sea or great river 
represented in all the ancient paintings of this migration.! This 
picture hardly represents a river, for the Aztecs in their wanderings 
must have passed many rivers, and some large ones, but the cross- 
ing of a river would not be an action so remarkable as to deserve 
this notice, while the crossing of a strait separating two great coun- 
tries, and presenting great difficulties, would. 

It is more probable that this picture represents Behring Strait, 
as all these emigrating, wandering tribes are said to have come 
from the north. They could not have come from any other quar- 
ter, had they come from Asia to America, after crossing the Strait 
of Behring. It may, however, allude to the passage by the Aleu- 
tian Islands, especially if the Copper Island, one of the islands of 
this group, contains copper, as from its name it probably does, 
for in one of the accounts of the emigration of one of the tribes 
mention is made of their having arrived at a place where they 
found copper. The Fox Islands form one of the cluster of 
islands known as the Aleutian chain. These islands are all of 
different sizes, below one hundred and forty miles in length, which 

* " Modern Universal History." 

f In a npte to Clavigero is this : "In several charts published in the sixteenth 
century this province appears situated to the north of the Gulf of California." 
It is thus seen why authors have made the migrations from the north of this 
gulf, and this gulf the water represented in the pictorial account of the migra- 
tions of the Aztecs. Batencourt makes Azatlan two thousand seven hundred 
miles from Mexico ! 



♦ 



440 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 

is that of Behring Island, and are divided by channels of very 
unequal width. This last is one hundred and ninety-two miles 
from the harbor of St. Peter and St. Paul, in Kamtschatka. 

Copper Island, which is mountainous and twenty-five miles 
long, lies due east of Behring, and is the first of the Aleutian or 
Fox Islands, properly so denominated ; Attoo is sixty miles in 
length, and one hundred and eighty-eight miles from Copper 
Island ; next is Agattoo, twenty miles distant, and six in length ; 
then Baldyr, an oval rock, six miles by ten, distant seventy miles, 
and so on regarding the rest to Omnak, Oonalaska and Oonemak, 
next to Alaska. 

The natives of the Aleutian Islands are of middle size, of a very 
dark-brown and healthy complexion, and resembling an interme- 
diate race between the Mongol Tartars and North Americans. 
Among the barbarous customs formerly practiced by the Aleutians 
was slaughtering slaves of both sexes at the funeral of their de- 
ceased chiefs. Sometimes the bodies of men are partially em- 
balmed with dried moss and grass, and interred in their best attire, 
along with their arms and other implements.* 

There was, in 1841, a tribe of Indians living south of the Ar- 
kansas River, on the waters of the Washataw. These Indians 
were know 7 n as the Tula tribe, and were the bravest of all the In- 
dians in that region. 

A hundred years after the destruction of the Toltecas the Che- 
chemecas arrived in Anahuac from the same quarter whence had 
proceeded the Toltecas. Their native country, the situation of 
which is unknown, was called Amaquemecan. They lived only 
on game and fruits and roots which the earth spontaneously pro- 
duced. Their motive for leaving their native country is uncer- 
tain, as likewise the etymology of the word Chechemecalt.f 
There was living in 1700, on the Bayou Lafourche, an outlet of the 
Mississippi River, in Louisiana, a tribe of Indians called the 
Chetimachas, which is so much like the word Chechemecas, that 
it probably is the same name written differently. There was also 
in Mexico a people called Otomies, and it may be that the Potta- 
watomies have emigrated from Mexico, as the Natchez and Chero- 
kees are said to have done. Besides this, there are the Mexican 
names Cachula and Guacachula, which are almost the same as 
Guachula, an Indian town that was in 1540 in what is now the 
State of Georgia, and is mentioned by Garcelasso, and appears to 
have been on the Chattahooche (Katta-Uche) River. 

* "Edinburgh Encyclopaedia." 
t Clavigero. 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



441 



Genseng, one of the principal medicines of the Chinese and the 
Tartars, is found in China and in portions of the United States. 
It is probable that it was introduced into this continent by emi- 
grants from Asia, and is an evidence of intercourse between the 
two hemispheres at some remote period. Before the discovery 
of the root in America, the root in Pekin frequently brought its 
weight in gold, and ten times its weight in silver. 

The roots, that are divided or bifurcated, are considered the 
most powerful, and it is said to this kind it owes its name, Jin- 
Chen, like a man; and, strange to say, the American Indian name, 
ganantoprien, means the same thing. 

These Aztecas brought with them a word that is found in Europe, 
Asia and Africa, and is incorporated into many Mexican words, 
where in many, if not all, instances, it has the same signification 
that it has in the countries of the Old World, where it is found, 
and that word is Tepe, which signifies mound, hillock, hill, moun- 
tain. It is found in Egypt, Asia Minor, Crimea, Persia, Turkestan, 
and India. Chevalier, who visited the Plains of Troy about the 
year 1790, being anxious to know whether the Turks gave any 
particular name to the monument of Esyetes, learned that they con- 
sidered it as the tomb of an infidel, and gave to it the appellation, 
Tepe-Udjik, Udjik being the name of a neighboring village. There 
were in that locality, besides this mound, other artificial hillocks, 
viz. : Bechk-Tepe, Dios-Tepe, In-Tepe-Gheule (name of the Rhse- 
tian promontory). 

Tepe-Kirman is the name of a mountain in the Crimea. Vam- 
bery says : " I, in the meantime, ascended the Black hill, which is 
situated in the village from which it derives its name, Kara-tepe, 
from the summit of which I was able to gain a view of the Cas- 
pian Sea." On the opposite (east) side of the Caspian was Gu- 
mush-Tepe. 

The Abbe Brasseur, alluding to the Lake of Nicaragua, says : 
" This lake announces itself from afar by the volcanic summits of 
the island of Ometepe, or of the Two- Mountains." 

Besides this word tepe there is Cachula and Guacachula, in the 
Mexican language very much like " Guachula," the name of an 
Indian town in Georgia mentioned by Garcelasso. There is also 
Colyma, the name of a town and a river in Siberia, mentioned by 
Cochrane, same as Colima, a province of Mexico, also Yebrashka, 
name of a Chukche chief, much like Nebraska, the river which 
flows into the Missouri. 

Moritz Wagner, who travelled in Persia, says : " The plains of 
Urmia present a series of artificial mounds resembling the Mo- 



442 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 



hills of the Russian steppes. The natives give no other name to 
these artificial mounds than Tepe. 1 ' The Mexicans have used this 
word to qualify many names. Tzatzitepec in the Mexican lan- 
guage means " the hill of shouting^ Quetzalcoatl (Feather Serpent), 
the god of the air, is said to have once heen high priest of Tula. 
Whenever he intended to promulgate a law in his kingdom he or- 
dered a crier to the top of the mountain Tzatzitepec (the hill of 
shouting), near the city of Tula, whose voice was heard at the 
distance of three hundred miles. 

Tepeithuitl, the name given to the month of October, signified 
only the festival of the mountains. They made little mountains of 
paper, on which they placed some little serpents made of wood 
and certain small idols, which they put upon the altars and wor- 
shipped as the images of the gods of the mountains* 

" The Tepeacas not having found inhabitants in the province 
which they now occupy, built there the town of Tepeaca, on the 
summit of a triangular mountain, which is designated by its name."t 

Popocatepec is the name of a mountain. Chepoltepec is the name 
of a hill in the vicinity of Mexico. 

The volcanic mountain, Orizaba, also has tepe or tepee in its 
Mexican name Citlaltepec, and so have the names of other moun- 
tains and mountainous places. 

And it is remarkable that the Sioux Indians call a certain moun- 
tain, known as the Devil's Peak, or Devil's Tower, in Wyoming, 
by the name of Mateo Tepe, the Bear's Lodge. This peak stands 
on the banks of the Belle Fourche River, in the northeastern part 
of Wyoming, and is a gigantic column of lava which rises one 
thousand six hundred and sixty-five feet above the level of the 
Belle Fourche River, which flows at its base, and the tower proper, 
which is almost perpendicular, is six hundred and sixty-five feet 
in height, and can be seen with a glass a distance of one hundred 
miles. It was used by the Indians as a signal tower, from which 
fires gave warning of the approach of hostile tribes or of the pres- 
ence of whites. 

Though the word tepe here means lodge, or tent, among the 
Sioux, whose tents, as also those of the Cheyennes, are of a conical 
form, and appearing at a distance, when pitched on a plain, like 
mounds or tumuli, it is probable that thus the name of their tent 
was derived ; yet it is remarkable that this word tepe is here used, 
as it is used in several countries of Asia and Mexico, to designate 
a mountain. 

In Central Asia, where probably the word originated, the yourts 
* Clavigero. f Eicher. 



CHAP. XLI.J 



OF AMERICA. 



443 



of the Kirghs are of a circular circumference thirty-four feet in dia- 
meter, five feet high to the spring of the dome, and twelve feet in the 
centre, and must have very much resembled tumuli at a distance. 

The following are some of the many words that have tepe or tepee 
in their composition, and, as this word in the Mexican or Aztec lan- 
guage signifies hill, hillock, mountain, and elevated land, it may 
in these words refer to them : 

m m • t i ± 1 States on the side of and 

Tustepec, Tepejacac, J auhtepec,, arQUnd the famoug moun _ 

Cajotepec, Tepetloztoc, Huaxtepec, \ ta in Popocatepec. 
Quantepec, Tepetecapac, Zocatepec, 

Xilotepec, Tepepan, Citlaltepec, the name of Mt. Origama. 

The Abbe Hervas says : u When we find the Hebrew word Sacco 
in the Hebrew, Greek, Teutonic, Latin languages, etc., it obliges 
us to believe that it belongs to the primitive language of man after 
the flood." If so, how forcible the fact that the word Tepe is found 
in Egypt, Asia Minor, the Crimea, Turkestan, Armenia, India, and 
Mexico, and in all these countries has the same signification and 
is applied to objects of the same character, except that in 
Mexico I do not know of its having been applied to tombs, tumuli 
or temples, though the teocallis have, through the effects of time, 
become huge tepes. 

The celebrated French traveller, Volney, visited the United 
States in the year 1795, where he spent three years studying the 
climate, laws, and the people and their manners. He says: " My 
stay at Vincennes afforded me some knowledge of the Indians 
who were assembled there to barter away the produce of their red 
hunt. There were four hundred or five hundred of them, men, 
women and children, of various tribes, as the Weeaws, Payories, 
Sawkies, Pyankeshaws, and Miami, all living near the Wabash. 
This was the first opportunity I had of observing at my leisure a 
people who have already become rare east of the Allegheny. It 
was to me a new and most whimsical sight. Bodies almost naked, 
tanned by the sun and air, shining with grease and soot, head un- 
covered, hair coarse, black, and straight, a face smeared with red, 
blue, and black paint, in patches of all forms and sizes ; one nostril 
bored to admit a ring of silver or copper ; earrings with three rows 
of drops down to the shoulders, and passing through holes that 
would admit a finger ; a little square apron before and another 
behind, fastened by the same string ; the legs and thighs sometimes 
bare and sometimes covered with cloth hose ; socks of smoke- 
dried leather ; sometimes a shirt with short, loose sleeves, and 
flowing loosely on the thighs, of variegated or striped cloth ; over 



444 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 



this a blanket or a square piece of cloth drawn over one shoulder 
and fastened under the other or under the chin. On solemn oc- 
casions, or for war, their hair is braided with flowers, feathers, or 
bones. The warriors have their wrists adorned with broad metal 
rings, and a circle round their heads of buckles or beads. They 
carry in their hand a pipe, knife, or tomahawk, and a little look- 
ing-glass, which they examined with as much attention and com- 
placency as any European coquette. The females are a little more 
covered about the loins. They carry one or two children behind 
them in a sort of bag, the ends of which are tied upon the fore- 
head.* In this aspect they have a strong resemblance to Gypsies. 

The men and women roamed all day about the town, merely 
to get rum, for which they eagerly exchanged their peltry, their 
toys, their clothes, and at length when they had parted with 
their all, they offered their prayers and entreaties, never ceasing 
to drink until they had lost their senses. Hence arose ridiculous 
scenes. They would hold the cup with both hands, like mon- 
keys, burst into unmeaning laughter, and gargle their beloved 
cup to enjoy the taste of it the longer; handed about the liquor 
with clamorous invitations ; bawled at each other, though close 
together; seized their wives and poured the liquor down their 
throats, and, in short, displayed all the freaks of vulgar drunken- 
ness. Sometimes tragical scenes ensue; they become mad or 
stupid, and, falling in the dust or mud, lie a senseless log until 
next day. We found them in the streets by dozens in the morn- 
ing, wallowing in the filth with the pigs. It was rare for a day to 
pass without a deadly quarrel, by which about ten men lose their 
lives yearly. A savage once stabbed his wife in four places with 
a knife, a few paces from me. A similar event took place a fort- 
night before, and five such the preceding year. For this ven- 
geance is either immediately taken, or deferred to future opportu- 
nity, by the relations of the slain, which affords fresh cause for 
bloodshed and treachery. I at first conceived the design of spend- 
ing a few months among them, as I had done among the Bed wins, 
but I was satisfied with this sample, and those the best acquainted 
with them assured me there was no Arabian hospitality among 
them, that all was anarchy and disorder.f 

* Some Indians have a large basket made of the outer strips of the cane, with 
a broad belt attached. The basket is carried at the back, and borne by the broad 
belt passing across the forehead of the woman. 

| Yet early travellers, as Carver and Bartram, passed years among the In- 
dians, and were not molested or injured by them. But Volney saw these Indians 
soon after their defeat by Wayne. 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



445 



I chiefly regretted, in abandoning my scheme, the loss of an 
opportunity for gaining some knowledge of their language and 
forming a vocabulary. Some of the people of Vincennes are ac- 
quainted with the Indian dialects, but their pronunciation is so 
bad, and their ignorance of all grammatical distinctions so great, 
that they could afford me no aid. 

The only person in America capable of giving me the aid I 
wanted was a man by the name of Wells,* who had been made 
captive by the Indians at thirteen years of age, and having pre- 
viously had a good education, he acquired an accurate knowledge * 
of several of their dialects while he lived among them. After 
the victories of Wayne in 1794 he obtained leave to return home, 
and was at this time acting as interpreter to the General, who was 
negotiating at Detroit with more than seven hundred Indians. 

This agreed with my plan for visiting Niagara. I accordingly 
returned to Louisville, and passed through Frankfort, the capital 
of Kentucky, and Lexington, where, in 1782, not a house was to 
be seen, but which now contained near five hundred habitations, 
w 7 ell built of brick. Thence I went to Cincinnati, and through 
the kindness of Major Swan, availed myself of a military 
convoy going to Detroit by a road formed by the army through 
two hundred and fifty miles of forest. Five palisaded forts, 
neatly constructed, were the only stages on this journey. There I 
met with a most flattering reception from the commander-in-chief. 
A severe fever and the season deprived me of the benefits I hoped 
from this reception. 

I was obliged to seize the only opportunity that offered for 
crossing the lake before winter and return to Philadelphia, where, 
fortunately, Mr. Wells arrived in company with a noted Miami 
chief, called Mishikinakwa, or the Little Turtle. It was he who 
contributed most to 'the defeat of St. Clair, and well-informed 
officers assured me that had his plan of waylaying stragglers and 
cutting off convoys been followed, Wayne's army would probably 
have shared the same fate.f 

* Wells was one of Wayne's scouts during the campaign of 1794. 

t This remark of Volney conveys an erroneous idea. General Wayne had 
studied the errors of the two preceding campaigns — Harmar's and St. Clair's — 
and had resolved to profit by them. He accepted the command on condition 
that he was not to begin the campaign till he judged proper to do so. He 
disciplined his army. He knew that it was indispensable for him to use the 
utmost caution in his movements to guard against surprise. To secure his 
army against the possibility of being ambuscaded, he employed a number of 
the best woodsmen the frontiers afforded, to act as spies or rangers. Captain 
Ephraim Kibby, one of the first settlers of Columbia, eight miles above Cin- 



446 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 



By this accident I was furnished not only with a skilful inter- 
preter, but with the mouth of a native to afford the true primitive 
words, for I soon made myself acquainted with Mr. Wells and 
the chief. They readily concurred with my wishes, and nine or 
ten visits in January and February, 1798, enabled me to draw up 
a vocabulary. This was my principal purpose, but the course of 
. the conversation afforded me many hints and facts. 

I am neither able nor willing to treat of savage nations in gen- 
eral. I shall merely speak of the aborigines of North America. 
I first conversed with them on the climate and soil of the Miaruis. 
Mr. Wells informed me that the tribe dAvelt on the upper branches 
of the Wabash ; that its language is spoken by all the tribes of that 
river, nearly to Lake Michigan; that its dialect is nearly allied to 
that of the Chippewas, Ottawas and Shawanese, but quite distinct 
from the Delawares. The Miamis make much use of the nasal 
sounds, and I almost imagined I heard the Turkish." 

Volney elsewhere afterwards says : "I shall here add a vocabu- 
lary of the Miami tongue, a dialect which appears to belong to 
the language of the Chippewa tribes, who, Mackenzie tells us, be- 
lieve themselves to have originally come from the northeast of Asia. 

The features of Little Turtle bore a strong resemblance to those 
of some Chinese Tartars who had been brought to Philadelphia by 
Van Braam, the Dutch ambassador to Pekin. This likeness be- 
tween the Indians and Tartars has struck all who have seen them 
both ; but, perhaps, some have too hastily inferred that the former 
atfs originally from Asia. As Indians have some notions of geog- 
raphy, I explained this theory to the chief, and laid before him a 
map of the contiguous parts of Asia and America. He readily 
recognized the great lakes, and the Ohio, Wabash, etc., and the 
rest he eyed with an eagerness which showed that it was new to 
him ; but it is a rule in Indian manners never to betray surprise. 
When I showed him the communication by Behring Strait and 
the Aleutian Isles, ' Why,' said he, ' should not these Tartars, 
who are like us, have gone first from the American side ? Are 
there any proofs to the contrary ? Why should not their fathers 
and ours have been born in our country ?' The Indians, indeed, 
give themselves the name Metoktheniaka (born of the soil).* 

cinnati, who had distinguished himself as a bold and intrepid soldier in defend- 
ing that infant settlement, commanded the principal part of the spies. A very 
effective division of the spies was commanded by Captain William Wells. It 
was thus that General Wayne foiled every effort of the enemy, and conquered. 

* There are Mexican words, which may be said to resemble Greek words, as 
Teo, calli, the house of God; MefoA-^erdaka, Indian, for born of the soil; Autochthon, 
Greek, indigenous, aboriginal, resembles the preceding in sound and signification. 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



147 



I have said that the Indians resemble the Asiatic Tartars, but 
some exceptions must be made, for the Esquimaux of the north 
and the gray-eyed race near Nootka Sound are each a distinct 
race, with no Tartarian features. The Tartar face belongs only to 
those who people the middle and southern regions, and who form 
a vast majority.* This face is not that of the Calmucks, whose 
flattened face and nose are not found among them. At Vincennes 
and Detroit I met with faces that reminded me of Bedwins and 
Egyptian fellahs. In the hue of their skin, quality of hair, and 
many other circumstances, they were alike. They likewise re- 
semble in having a mouth shaped like a shark's, the sides lower 
than the front ; the teeth small, regular, white and very sharp, like 
the tiger's. I shall say little of the custom of the Choctaws to 
mould the skull of the new-born child to the shape of a truncated 
pyramid, by pressing them between boards. This mode is so 
effectual that the tribe is known by the name of Flat Heads. 

More accurate inquiries must, however, be left to the learned in 
America, who enjoy the best opportunities of settling the truth. 

Language is the most instructive and unerring of all the monu- 
ments of rude nations. Dr. Barton has published a curious dis- 
sertation on this subject, in which he compares several of these 
dialects with each other and with those of the Tartarian nations 
of Asia. He was aided in this task by the collections made by 
Dr. Pallas of words in nearly three hundred Asiatic languages, 
by order of the Empress Catherine. 

These disquisitions have led Dr. Barton to several important 
conclusions, though all of them do not appear to be equally well 
founded. I cannot discover the affinity inferred by him between 
the languages of the Caribbeans, Brazilians, and Peruvians, and 
those of the Pottawatomies, Delawares, and the Six Nations, 
merely from a likeness of between two or three words. I agree 
with him more fully in the resemblance he traces between the 
latter and the dialects of northeastern Asia. Much credit, how- 
ever, is due to him for opening a mine of valuable and curious 
knowledge, a mine which ought to be explored more deeply, and 
by the united efforts of many learned men. In a few ages the 
red-men will probably perish forever. Vast numbers have already 
disappeared, and if the present opportunity be lost, the only clue 
to the affinity between the natives of America and those of the 
northeast of Asia will be lost." 

Xo one was, perhaps, more capable of recognizing the resem- 

* When Volney was in the United States their western boundary was the 
Mississippi Kiver. 



448 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 



blances of the North American Indians to Egyptians. Tartars, and 
Bedwins, than Volney, for he was familiar with the features of 
these, and with those of the Indian tribes of the Wabash ; and I 
may add to what he says of these resemblances that the Scythians, 
Cimmerians, and Cimbri, the earliest hordes of Central Asia, 
were, as described by ancient historians, similar to the American 
Indians in their warlike habits, dispositions, and customs. I can 
see scarcely any difference in the features, complexion and char- 
acter of a Chinaman and a Choctaw. 

Jefferson, in his " Notes on the State of Virginia," says : " The 
great question has arisen, from whence came these aboriginals of 
America ? Discoveries long ago made were sufficient to show that 
the passage from Europe to America was always practicable, even 
to the imperfect navigation of ancient times. Again, the late dis- 
coveries of Captain Cook, coasting from Kamschatka to Califor- 
nia, have proven that if the two continents of Asia and America 
are separated at all, it is only by a narrow strait ; so that from 
this side, also, inhabitants may have passed into America, and the 
resemblance between the Indians of America and the eastern in- 
habitants of Asia would induce us to conjecture that the former 
are the descendants of the latter, or the latter of the former, ex- 
cepting, indeed, the Eskimaux, who, from the same circumstance 
of resemblance and from identity of language, must be derived 
from the Greenlanders, and these probably from some of the north- 
ern parts of the old continent. A knowledge of these several 
languages would be the most certain evidence of their derivation 
which could be produced. In fact it is the best proof of the affin- 
ity of nations which ever can be referred to. How many ages 
have elapsed since the English, the Dutch, the Germans, the Swiss, 
the Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes have separated from their 
common stock? Yet how many more must elapse before the 
proofs of their common origin, which exists in their several lan- 
guages, will disappear? It is to be lamented, then, very much to 
be lamented, that we have suffered so many Indian tribes already 
to be extinguished without our having previously collected and 
deposited in the records of literature the general rudiments, at 
least, of the language they spoke. Were vocabularies formed of 
all the languages spoken in North and South America, preserving 
the appellations of the most common objects of nature, of those 
which must be present to every nation, barbarous or civilized, 
with the inflections of their nouns and verbs, their principles of 
regimen and concord, and these deposited in all the public libra- 
ries, it would furnish opportunities to those skilled in the lan- 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



449 



guages of the Old World to compare them with these now, or at 
any future time, and hence construct the best evidence of the 
derivation of this part of the human race. 

But imperfect as is our knowledge of the languages spoken in 
America, it suffices to discover the following remarkable fact. 
Arrange them under the radical ones to which they may be palpa- 
bly traced, and doing the same with those of the red men of Asia, 
there will be found, probably, twenty in America for one in Asia 
of those radical languages, so called, because if they were ever the 
same they had lost all resemblance to one another. A separation 
into dialects may be the work of a few ages only, but for two dia- 
lects to recede from one another till they have lost all vestiges of 
their common origin must require an immense course of time, 
perhaps not less than many people give to the age of the earth. 
A greater number of those radical changes of language having 
taken place among the red men of America proves them of greater 
antiquity than those of Asia."* 

To the views of Charlevoix, Volney and Jefferson may appro- 
priately be added those of President D. S. Jordan, of the Leland 
Stanford University, on the " Urgent Needs of a National Uni- 
versity," contained in the '" Forum " of January, 1897, from which 
the following is quoted : 

" Ever since the time of Washington our law-givers have con- 
templated building a university at the nation's capital. For more 
than a century wise men have kept this project in mind. For 
more than a century wise men have seen the pressing need of its 
accomplishment. For more than a century, however, the exi- 
gencies of politics or the indifference of political managers have 
caused postponement of its final consideration. 

It should not be necessary to bring arguments to show the need 
of a National University in the United States. In its very defini- 
tion a university must be above and beyond all sectarianism. 
Truth is as broad as the universe. It is said that in America we 
already have some four hundred colleges and universities, and 
that, therefore, we do not need any more. Quite true ; we need 
no more like these. The splendid achievement and noble promise 
of our universities are not due to their number. Many of them do 
not show this promise. If such were to close their doors to-morrow, 
education would be the gainer by it. Many of the four hundred, 
as we well know, are not universities in fact or in spirit, but in a 
certain number of the strongest and freest the genuine university 

* Jefferson's u Notes on the State of Virginia." 
29 



450 



THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. XLI. 



spirit is found in the highest degree. For more of these good ones 
there is a crying demand. Their very promise is a reason why we 
should do everything possible to make them better. A school can 
rise to be a university only when its teachers are university men — 
when they are men trained to face directly and effectively the 
problems of nature and of life. To give such training is the work 
of the university. 

A great university at the capital of the Republic would attract 
the free-minded of all the earth. It should fill, with noble ade- 
quacy, the place which the graduate departments of our real uni- 
versities partially occupy. Great libraries and adequate facilities 
for work are costly, and no American institution has yet gathered 
together such essentials for university work as already exist at 
Washington. The National Museum and the Army Medical Mu- 
seum far exceed all other similar collections in America in the 
amount and value of the material gathered for investigation. The 
Library of Congress is our greatest public library, and in the na- 
ture of things it will always remain so. The Geological Survey, 
the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the biological divisions of the 
Department of Agriculture are constantly engaged in investiga- 
tions of the highest order, conducted by men of university train- 
ing, and possible to no other men. The United States Fish Com- 
mission is the source of a vast part of our knowledge of the sea 
and of sea life. Besides these there are many other bureaus and 
divisions in which scientific inquiry constitutes the daily routine. 
The work of these departments should be made useful, not only 
in its conclusions, but in its methods. A university consists of 
investigators teaching. All that the national capital needs to 
make a great university of it is that a body of real scholars should 
be maintained to teach other men in the work now so worthily 
carried on. But a National University must spring from the peo- 
ple. It must be paid for by them, and it must have its final jus- 
tification in the upbuilding of the nation. Whatever institutions 
the people need the people must create and control. With all 
their mistakes and crudities the State universities of this country 
constitute the most hopeful feature in our whole educational sys- 
tem. Doubtless the weakness and folly of the people have af- 
fected them injuriously from time to time. This is not the point. 
We must think of the effect they have had in curing the people 
of weakness and folly. 

All plans for a National University provide for a non-partisan 
board of control. Its ex-qfficio members are to be chosen from the 
ablest jurists and wisest men of science the country can claim. 



271950 



CHAP. XLI.] 



OF AMERICA. 



451 



Such a board now controls the Smithsonian Institution and the 
National Museum, and no accusation of partisanship or favoritism 
has ever been brought against it. A university could not be oth- 
erwise than free. Its faculty could respond only to the noblest 
influences. No man could receive an appointment of national 
prominence in the face of glaring unfitness, and each man chosen 
to a position in a national faculty would feel the honor of his pro- 
fession at stake in repelling all degrading influences. No body of 
men is so insusceptible to coercion or contamination as a univer- 
sity faculty. A scholar is a free man. He has always been so. 
He will always remain so. In the long run the voters of a nation 
must be led by its wisest men. Their wisdom must become the 
wisdom of the many, else the nation will perish. There is no in- 
strument of political, social or administrative reform to be com- 
pared with the influence of a National University.' 1 





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